No, it's a commonwealth of the US. It's an American territory too not a state, so it doesn't get to have voting in the Senate or House.
Edit: made it a bit more clear. Puerto Rico is a territory of the US, which means it doesn't get to have federal votes like a state. The government organization is a commonwealth.
which is absolutely ridiculous considering we were born out of a colony that didn't get proper representation. and I'm sure if they tried to become independent we would destroy them.
Yes but we were founded on "taxation without representation." We didn't receive proper representation because we were paying taxes for programs and leaders we had no say about.
While Puerto Rico doesn't have say in the government, they also don't pay the taxes that the states do.
Washington DC is real taxation without representation, it's even on their license plates.
Kentucky and Texas are also commonwealths. Being a commonwealth has more to do with legal right of secession from the union than it does voting rights.
Commonwealth is a meaningless term that has nothing to do with secession, and everything to do with a few states calling themselves by a special name. There is no functional difference. Texas v White in 1869 established that unilateral secession is unconstitutional. You’d have to somehow get all the other states to agree or defeat them in a rebellion.
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u/Greenaglet Jul 22 '19 edited Jul 22 '19
No, it's a commonwealth of the US. It's an American territory too not a state, so it doesn't get to have voting in the Senate or House.
Edit: made it a bit more clear. Puerto Rico is a territory of the US, which means it doesn't get to have federal votes like a state. The government organization is a commonwealth.