Statehood For The Stateless?

  America, like Europe, has an ugly history of imperialism. While we famously passed the Monroe Doctrine that banned European interference in America, we had no problem doing so ourselves. We spent nearly a century working on a canal across Central America (Zachary Taylor's Clayton-Bulwer Treaty ended plans for a canal across Nicaragua). President James K. Polk intentionally started the Mexican-American War and in exchange earned America California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada. Franklin Pierce's Ostend Manifesto sought to take Cuba and make it a state using military force if necessary. The Spanish-American War, most-likely started under false pretenses, gave the United States claim over Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. The United States suppressed a revolution in the Philippines in the oft-forgotten Philippine-American War that can only be called genocide. Nearly a million citizens were killed by disease and famine and the entire culture was Americanized.

This has left us with Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Puerto Rico has a higher population than 20 U.S. states, and yet it does not have voting power in Congress. Its residents, including its representative, have increasingly voted for statehood, while many politicians have avoided addressing the issue owing to the divisiveness of the situation. Very few residents of said places favor independence, yet it is abundantly clear that the current relationship is not fair to the literally millions of citizens who have spent over 100 years being silenced.

It is time to commit. We must offer a referndum with a minimum participation target and very strict monitoring to ensure accuracy. If the people want statehood, we must create the path to statehood in the next 5 years. When America returns to its founding principle of fair representation, we will know that we have truly advanced as a nation.