“We need to get back on the statehood path for millions of disenfranchised people,” Rep. Jamie Raskin said in a special address. “I’m talking about the people of Puerto Rico…We’ve got three and a half million citizens who are completely frozen out of the political process in Puerto Rico. We’ve got to admit them.”
You’ll hear that Congress will never admit Puerto Rico as a state, but that claim ignored the many members of Congress over the years who have favored statehood for Puerto Rico. Statehood has been part of the platform of both the Republican and Democratic national parties, and both senators and members of Congress have cosponsored statehood bills. In fact, the House of Representatives passed The Puerto Rico Status Act, a bill which would have made Puerto Rico a state following the final status referendum.
“We’ve got to get the movement of democracy back in motion again,” Raskin continued.
Raskin: a longtime statehood supporter
Raskin has made this point many times. In 2019, he said, “Alexis de Tocqueville said that democracy is either expanding or it is contracting. It is time for American democracy to expand again. We need Puerto Rican statehood not only to defend the much-trampled rights and liberties of more than three million Americans living in Puerto Rico but to keep the trajectory of American democracy growing, vibrant and robust. In American history, we started with 13 states but Congress has since admitted 37 new states, overriding every manner of petty political objection to vindicate the principles of equal rights and inclusion. What a wonderful statement of American democracy it will be to the rest of the world when Puerto Rico enters the Union and becomes a full and equal member of the nation.”
Raskin is a Democrat, but statehood is a bipartisan issue, with support on both sides of the aisle. Many members of Congress focus on the question of civil rights or human rights, calling for equality and justice for the people of Puerto Rico. Raskin, while not overlooking the importance of statehood for the people of Puerto Rico, makes a different point, emphasizing the value of Puerto Rico statehood for the United States as a whole.
The process of statehood
The process of statehood, says Raskin, is a way to grow democracy, to extend the values of the United States to people who are currently excluded from the democratic process in a nation that purports to be a beacon of democracy in the world.
Reach out to your representatives and make sure they know that you want to see them on the right side of history, supporting statehood for Puerto Rico.
Photo courtesy of Paul Morigi
No responses yet