Future of Puerto Rico

[minionofmidas]

Where's the "other - heavily armed Venezuelan dependency" option?

[minionofmidas]

Not necessarily true.  They currently have a republican governor.  I think we must put an end to the status quo, not only in Puerto Rico but in the other territories as well.  All other territories became states at some point so it really doesn't sit well with me that these insular territories have had that status for more than a century in some cases.
Either give them statehood or set them free.

Yes and no. They have a penepe governor who happens to be affiliated with the Republicans. Take statehood/commonwealth out of the picture (which divides the Democratic voters but not the Republican ones).

It might be more accurate to say that mainland politics divide the PNP voters but not the PRD voters.

[minionofmidas]

Make Utah a commonwealth and give PR statehood. There, that solves the flag issue.

Texas.

[minionofmidas]

Make Utah a commonwealth and give PR statehood. There, that solves the flag issue.

Texas.

Texas is trending democrat and will be a swing state by the 2020s so no need for it.

Nobody can know right now what the swing states by the 2020s will be.

[minionofmidas]

^^That would be a fairly large state. And bundling the US Pacific trusts into another state would be roughly five more votes, creating two new fairly large states. I would say to go for it if the people approve.

No, even including the former trust territories (whose current independence is a scam anyways) that would still be three EVs. Unless you were including Hawaii.
Anyways American Samoa has less in common with Micronesia than, say, Florida with Alaska. Why not turn the continental 49 into a single state instead?

[minionofmidas]

Puerto Rico is more populous than Wyoming, so, yes, it should be added as a state. How many electoral votes would it have, though?

I believe it would begin with an At-Large until the next census? And there would be one extra seat in Congress until the next redistricting.

I think that's what happened with Alaska and Hawaii right?

They were far smaller and were added very shortly before a Census (after which Hawaii gained the second seat that it's population would have entitled it to anyways). There may also have been a desire to keep the House's size an odd number during the interim.
Most states have been admitted with one Representative, but there have been exemptions for very populous new states before (Oklahoma off the top off my head, Texas almost certainly, possibly others).

[minionofmidas]

^I'm pretty sure Maine had 6-8 when it joined the union.
Micronesia is currently independent. I'm talking about Guam, northern Mariana Islands and the like. Islands that we currently possess.

That is only Guam, the Northern Marianas, and American Samoa at the Pacific's other end. The Northern Marianas are the only part of the former Pacific Trust Territory (to which Guam never belonged, having been in US hands since 1898) to still be formally in US possession - practically it's a somewhat different matter. Four nominally sovereign countries were carved from the Territory: Palau, Kiribati, Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia.

[minionofmidas]

The combined population of those three territories stands at roughly 360,000. That's just short of Wyoming, still not that bad. And it gives voting rights to these people on a national level, a right they should've had to begin with.

...and adding the four ex-trust countries, you get to a population to mirror the average single member (3 EV) state.
Although I still contend that American Samoa should not, under no circumstances, be lumped in with Micronesia.

[minionofmidas]

We do not own Micronesia! I highly doubt that they will rejoin the union, so thus they will not be grouped with Samoa. There's not even a movement that I know of for us to regain the former trust territories. I'm recommending that we group our current Pacific possessions into a state.

While you should, perhaps, read up on the "Compact of Free Association", the Marianas are part of Micronesia (the world region, not the country) too.

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Lol, not remotely comparable.

[minionofmidas]

I thought you were suggesting annexing Micronesia (the country).

Well, I was contemplating the possibility - it makes more sense than throwing in East Samoa. It is a little unlikely, though - though certainly more likely than just about any other theoretically possible abolution of an independent country extant in the world right now (these things just don't happen any more. Good thing, too.)

Give Samoa back to the Samoans.