Sunday, July 18, 2010

George Will on Puerto Rican Statehood

George Will has a surprising editorial in today's Post (here) in which he argues that Republican support for Puerto Rican statehood could help change the party's fortunes among Hispanic voters.

Will focuses on Puerto Rico's 49-year-old Republican governor, Luis Fortuno, who says that most Puerto Ricans are culturally conservative. He seems to think that Puerto Ricans might actually vote in favor of statehood, notwithstanding a vote of 50-46 against it in a 1998 referendum.

Fortuno went to law school at UVa.

Will's article includes this funny description of the US's involvement in the Spanish-American War:
The United States acquired Puerto Rico 112 years ago in the testosterone spill called the Spanish-American War. Before another century passes, perhaps Puerto Ricans' ambivalence about their somewhat ambiguous status can be rectified to the advantage of Republicans.
I love the phrase "testosterone spill" - that is historically exactly right. And we continue to spill the testosterone (in other parts of the world) one hundred years later.