2mo ago

Americans in Puerto Rico can't vote for US president. Their anger at Trump is shaping the race

apnews.com Americans in Puerto Rico can't vote for US president. Their anger at Trump is shaping the race

Residents say a speaker calling Puerto Rico garbage before a packed Donald Trump rally in New York was the latest humiliation for an island territory that has long suffered from mistreatment.

Puerto Ricans cannot vote in general elections despite being U.S. citizens, but they can exert a powerful influence with relatives on the mainland. Phones across the island of 3.2 million people were ringing minutes after the speaker derided the U.S. territory Sunday night, and they still buzzed Monday.

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is competing with Trump to win over Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania and other swing states. Shortly after stand-up comic Tony Hinchcliffe said that, “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” Puerto Rican reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny announced he was backing Harris.

After Sunday’s rally, a senior adviser for the Trump campain, Danielle Alvarez, said in a statement that Hinchcliffe’s joke did “not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

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201 comments

I saw a video of the 'comedy' that was said about Puerto Rico and I am honestly just fucking baffled as to why they hate them that much? I guess all they need to be to be hated is just be browner than they are.
Also how come the issue of Trump's disgusting behavior during Hurricane Maria and his refusal to fully help them beyond a stupid stunt that had him throw a paper towel at someone's face.
- A lot of them don't know that Puerto Ricans are Americans. So, add xenophobia to the racism.
  
  Man when I went to pr for a quick vacation the amount of people asking about passports floored me. I was like it’s a us territory how have you not learnt that in school?
  Also I got lots of local pr Spanish slang, they’re chill peeps and mofongo is the best. I think they should get statehood they’re bigger in population than the state I grew up in and it would be nice to shake up us politics with more senate seats.
  
  Arroz con Pollo. I can eat that all. Day.
  
  Amen to that! I was worried I’d get fat in pr, but ended up losing weight. Maybe I should move…
  
  Every time there's a vote on becoming a state they vote no. I don't think it should be forced on them.
  
  The last time there was a plebiscite in 2020, voting on whether to become a state or not, the outcome was for statehood by 52.34%.
  
  I didn't know about that one. Traditionally they've always voted no. Why didn't they move forward with it?
  
  It hasn't moved forward because Congress has to approve it. Just because Puerto Rico wants to be a state doesn't mean they'll be instantly let into the Union. Here's a link to the voting results. Its in Spanish since it's from the biggest newspaper on the island.
  
  It’s not forced, every state was a territory and chose to become a state. That’s the prescribed way for this to go. Why do we want to change that now? Part of statehood also changes things like federal aid etc as you’ll now be paying federal taxes but a part of this representation involves all this extra.
  
  I'm not suggesting we change it. Puerto Rico has held votes on whether to become a state, and traditionally voted no. That's all the reason I need to let them stay a territory.
  I'm not opposed to them becoming a state if they want, another commenter told.me the latest vote was 'yes' by a narrow margin so who knows what will happen next.
- Brown bad
  GOP
  
  The GOP controllers aren't the racists though. They're rich, and puppets to the wealthy. In order to remain in positions of power, they create an enemy, in the form of bigotry and racism. Their sheep are racists. This is why though I trust very few politicians, I trust the Dems more atm because they are not using hatred and violence.
  
  I'm not so sure, I bet some (or most?) of them are racist too. I'm sure they play it up, but do you really think they are all that accepting of people of color?
  
  I think they are accepting of themselves and only thmselves so long as their selfishness is to benefit. For sure though, the act of leading people with racist rhetoric is as bad or even worse than racism itself.
- I was thinking the guy is an idiot and meant to say Cuba but I have no idea. This is the first time I've ever heard anybody talk crap about Puerto Rico and it made no sense.
  
  I assumed he meant to say Haiti, which is still awful, but at least it would have kind of made sense...poorly.
  
  Trump has a bad record with Puerto Rico, hes shit on them a few times and blocked aid when they were hit with a hurricane during his admin
- They’re brown AND their country has a very Spanish sounding name. I can hear
  <insert drunk uncle>
  talking about it now: “any sumremoved from a place called PWER-TOE REEE-KO ain’t Mexicans just as much as any sand n*****s from Saudi Arabia ain’t AY-RABS!”

201 comments