The status quo with Puerto Rico is sustainable — it’s unhealthy for our civic family and inherently un-American. Puerto Rico can’t stay an American Commonwealth forever, and the island has the unpleasant distinction of being the oldest colony in world history. Puerto Rico must become the 51st state.
Puerto Rico as a state would be compelled to make structural changes — economic, governmental, regulatory, and social — that would benefit the people of the island. Indeed, Puerto Rico joining the Union would be a boon to Americans from Anchorage to Old San Juan.
Liberty requires full citizenship, and full participation in America’s unique democratic experiment. What is ‘American Exceptionalism’ if not the idea that anyone from anywhere can be an American? Puerto Ricans are Americans. Period.
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