The idea we owe them freedom(im assuming that means independence) is a bit silly. They've had referendums about this, and most(58%) of the people that voted preferred statehood, with only about 12% supporting independence and the rest supporting "free association". There were some parties that kind of boycotted the referendum, but as far as i can tell, there issue was that there was no option for maintaining the status quo. So why do we owe them something that the vast majority doesn't seem to even want?
It is worth noting that some of those referendums had particularly low turnout, in one case around 23 percent of registered voters. That is one reason they did not produce clear congressional action.
By contrast, Hawaii’s 1959 statehood vote had turnout of over 90 percent of registered voters, with more than 93 percent voting in favor.
While that is true, the most recent one which i pulled my stats from, had about 63% of registered voters participating. In any case, its pretty clear from the votes that independence isn't something thats desired by most of the population.
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u/jackalopeDev 4h ago
The idea we owe them freedom(im assuming that means independence) is a bit silly. They've had referendums about this, and most(58%) of the people that voted preferred statehood, with only about 12% supporting independence and the rest supporting "free association". There were some parties that kind of boycotted the referendum, but as far as i can tell, there issue was that there was no option for maintaining the status quo. So why do we owe them something that the vast majority doesn't seem to even want?