The General in Puerto Rico

[Uncwilly]

Something that got buried in election day news (because the presidential election sucked up all of the air): Puerto Rico had another, but importantly different, vote on statehood.
This is different because it was binary. It is also different, because:

This wording imitates the wording used in the successful statehood referendums of Alaska and Hawaii.

And thus if PR becomes a state, from my perspective, rebuild is more likely.

Thread rename is in order.

[Dr Sardonicus]

The 2016 Republican Party Platform plank regarding Puerto Rico - the whole platform simply was re-used in 2020 - says:

We support the right of the United States citizens of Puerto Rico to be admitted to the Union as a fully sovereign state. We further recognize the historic significance of the 2012 local referendum in which a 54 percent majority voted to end Puerto Rico's current status as a U.S. territory, and 61 percent chose statehood over options for sovereign nationhood. We support the federally sponsored political status referendum authorized and funded by an Act of Congress in 2014 to ascertain the aspirations of the people of Puerto Rico. Once the 2012 local vote for statehood is ratified, Congress should approve an enabling act with terms for Puerto Rico's future admission as the 51st state of the Union.

On June 19, 2019, Mitch McConnel told The Ingraham Angle

"They plan to make the District of Columbia a state — that'd give them two new Democratic senators — Puerto Rico a state, that would give them two more new Democratic senators," he continued. McConnell said rising support among House Democrats for the Green New Deal, Medicare For All -- and possibly an expanded Supreme Court -- signals a potential turn for the worse in the U.S. Congress.

"This is full-bore socialism on the march in the House. And yeah, as long as I'm the majority leader of the Senate, none of that stuff is going anywhere," he said.

In other words, official party policy positions go out the window if they might benefit Democrats.

Well, he is no longer majority leader.

[Uncwilly]

The first post in this thread was violently taken away from the Arecibo thread without the author's consent. The political aspect was only brought up because it may change the likelihood of Arecibo's rebuild.
The mod who split it off is over-zealous to talk about partisan politics.