Puerto Rico has received more-than-average media coverage during President Donald Trump’s term, largely because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria and the administration’s insensitive response.
The attention on the island has launched it into a place of prominence for the Democratic primaries.
According to a Wednesday Politico report, candidates Julian Castro and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) have already made pit stops. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) named San Juan’s mayor his campaign co-chair.
“The visual Trump created by throwing paper towels at people who needed relief is easy to point to as an example of the failures of the administration,” Mayra Macias, vice president of Latino Victory, told Politico.
Despite Puerto Rico’s increased prominence, though, some officials are frustrated that their top-tier issues, like statehood, are still being dodged by the mainstream candidates.
Yep. I think we can pinpoint the exact moment tRump lost all the votes on the US island of Puerto Rico. Paper towel tossing will go down in history as the day tRump firmly put Puerto Ricans on the island and on the mainland firmly in the D column for a generation or two. To which tRump replies, “You mean, they’re allowed to vote?”
Nice job, Orangeman…now go fuck yourself.
PR and DC statehood (or at least Congressional representation for DC) should be #1 on any Dem candidate’s list of action items.
It was a blessed moment…
Puerto Ricans are US Citizens. Since 1910. However, they do not vote in US Presidential Elections, unless they move to the mainland and register to vote in a State.
They do not have the congressmen that their population would give them, they have one non-voting representative in the House, The Resident Commissioner. Which sounds cooler in Spanish. The Marianas has the other non-voting representative in the House. Nor the two Senators that every State has. The Resident Commissioner is Jennifer Gonzalez, who is as Pro-Trump a Puerto Rican as you will ever find, even after Maria and Trump’s feckless, life costing lack of urgency. She and Governor Rosello are New Progressive Party (PNP) which is pro Statehood and is home to most of the Right Wingers in PR. Rosello is a Democrat. There is a long story behind that. I will not impose it on you.
But Puerto Rico has had a Democratic Presidential Primary since at least the early 70’s, maybe the late 60’s. The earliest one I remember was in the 70’s, when I was in high school. There was a very spirited Presidential Primary the year Jimmy Carter won the nomination and the PR Primary. There was some waggish humor when Ruben Berrios, then head of the PR Independence Party, referred to the Carter supporters in the primaries as Carteristas. Which means pick pockets in colloquial Spanish. Or maybe he was just quoting some unintentional malaprop by a local TV newscaster.
The HRC-Sanders primary was subject of campaign trips by both candidates. The Sanders people, in the local press, and in a particular Diary on DailyKos, claimed the fix was in because the PR Government did not open every single polling place that they open during Governor and local legislature and municipal elections. Because of the Government’s well known financial constraints, and possibly because of the Financial Review Board the House GOP Majority imposed on Puerto Rico (during the vogue of all those Michigan Financial Review Boards like the one that poisoned Flint’s water supply), the polling places were opened with an average of 1,000 assigned voters per school (they are usually schools), over the period of an entire day. Which is not a terrible number. But the disenfranchisement cry went out, like in NY, which required a Democratic Party registration to vote in the Democratic primaries.
As I recall, the second Carter-Ted Kennedy primary was very spirited in PR. As was the HRC-Obama primary.
Anyway, PR residents don’t vote in the Presidential elections.
And unfortunately, there is a substantial and vocal right wing element among the pro-Statehood New Progressive Party (PNP in Spanish initials). They are pro-Trump. Some of them write Op Eds for one of the local paper where they attack the Mayor of San Juan regularly and complain about their ungrateful countrymen who did not sufficiently appreciate Donald Trump’s trip. The paper towel toss caught all the national attention. But in the same church visit, there was video of Trump talking to two local women. They were taking Water Purification Kits (smaller and more helpful than paper towels, I suppose). Trump asked what the plastic wrapped packages were. He was incredulous that they needed them. In that affluent gated suburban community. And he asked them, “Do they work???” Like the doofus he is.
Anyway, POLITICO is a condescending right wing leaning on line publication. Maybe they actually weren’t aware of Puerto Rico Presidential Primaries. Ok. Sorry for the long school marmish post.
Please be MY guest.