Wondering why American citizens aren’t up in arms in the streets, à la Spain, Egypt, Greece, and elsewhere? Well, they are, just not on the mainland.
Al Jazeera’s always-intriguing Fault Lines visits the island to look at the massive protests as the government imposes big cuts in education and social services, rending Puerto Rico a guinea pig in a harsh conservative “fiscal experiment”:
Howard Portnoy writing in the Examiner:
Although it has not received much play in the mainstream media, the U.S. House is voting today on a bill that could ultimately result in Puerto Rico becoming the fifty-first state. The notion of Puerto Rican statehood is nothing new. Residents of the commonwealth have voted three times on the question of whether Puerto Rico should become a state, most recently in 1996. Each time, residents voted to retain the island’s extant status.
This time could be the “charm” for Democrats in Congress, who see a golden opportunity in winning Puerto Rican over as a state. Seating two more senators and as many as six Congressmen likely to align themselves with the Democrats would give the party in power even more control going forward.
The resolution before the House, which leaders hasten to assure worried Americans is non-binding, would work differently from the previous measures voted on by the citizens of Puerto Rico.
