As the humanitarian crisis in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico unfolds, the Twitter machine keeps asking why nothing is being done (or some variant thereof). There’s a simple reason: a lack of political power. If Puerto Rico had two voting senators–who could do something like threaten to shut down the entire Senate until their state receives assistance–they would already be receiving help. Right now, Republicans are desperate to pass a destroy-healthcare bill, so they would just shovel money at them to make them go away.
This ends today’s lesson in the consequences of the absence of democracy.
mikethemadbiologist
On the other hand, if Puerto Rico had congressional representatives, they’d probably all be Democrats, so the GOP Congress wouldn’t give a crap what they wanted.
I wouldn’t count on that. I’m sure conservative Puerto Rican politicians could gerrymander with the best of them.
Only in the latest referendum did the Puerto Ricans vote for statehood. Politics and bureaucrats usually don’t work that fast, they’ll have to wait. Also AFAIK the republicans are in favour of statehood for Puerto Rico. In other words, the Puerto Ricans made their own bed, now they should lie in it. It’s not as if hurricanes are unknown there…