I'm OK with secession - if Puerto Rico wants to go, let them go! - Granite Grok

I’m OK with secession – if Puerto Rico wants to go, let them go!

Puerto Rico flagI guess this is one of those Libertarian leanings I have as a Conservative – if a territory such as Puerto Rico wants to leave, well, have a nice forever (emphasis mine, reformatted):

Puerto Rican Activists Seek Help from The Hague for Reunification with Spain

A group of activists in Puerto Rico unhappy with the current status of the island as a United States commonwealth is demanding a separation from America and reunification with Spain. The group plans to contest the 1898 Treaty of Paris, which handed Puerto Rico to the United States, at the International Court of Justice.  According to Fox News Latino, the group, the Puerto Rico Reunification With Spain organization, is seeking to be annexed into Spain given the ethnic history of the island and its separation from Spain through war. Unlike its neighbors Cuba and the Dominican Republic, which fought wars of independence to assert their sovereignty from Spain and Haiti respectively, Spain lost Puerto Rico in 1898 as part of its loss in the Spanish-American War as declared in the Treaty of Paris. Puerto Rico became an American territory and its residents United States citizens, but the territory never became a state.

The US does not formally recognize the ICJ so I’m not sure that would be all that persuasive (although, given the transnational / post-Constitutional elites in DC, anything is possible with this Administration).  Yes, I know that our Civil War was formally fought over, not slavery, but  States’ right to secede from the Union.  They wanted to run their own lives, their own States, their way and the Confederates were willing to wage war over it.  Even now, we see all kinds of talks about pieces of current States (NY, MD, CA, CO, VT) willing to split themselves off either as new States or be joined with other ones that are more ideologically aligned with the few that are being “politically run over” by the majority (generally a rural / urban spitting fight where values are vastly different).

Puerto Rico Reunification With Spain leader José Nieves notes the lack of volition on the part of the Puerto Rican people in separating from Spain as a driving factor in the nascent movement. He argues that the United States “denies us the right” to full voting rights in Spanish elections and Spanish citizenship by “distorting our history.” “Our priority is to have historic justice done, because Puerto Rico and Spain were forcefully separated,” he said.

Ah, I get it – another grievance that speaks to “Cultural Appropriation“.  Umm, don’tcha think that, just maybe, just perhaps, Spain might have a little to say on the matter.  Mr. Nieves, does SPAIN want you back?  Do you think that YOUR version of “historic justice” matches up well with most Spaniards’ version of that?

Sidenote: does every person who has any kind of grievance against any one or any people or anything just think that by using the word  “justice” (in this case, “historic justice“), they’re supposed to get their own way?  Do they realize that the more they use social  justice, environmental  justice, financial justice, housing  justice, and now historic justice that they just tick the rest of us off?  Don’t they realize that they have blown the usefulness of the word by overuse (and by bastardizing / redefining its definition).

I guess they have realized that we instinctively translate that to be whining, as in “I AM morally superior to you – stop arguing with me, simply take a knee, and give me what I want – waaaaaa!!!!”.

The post continues:

The goal of the organization, Nieves told Fox News Latino, was to bring the Treaty of Paris to The Hague and have it invalidated. While he notes that polls show Puerto Ricans are unsatisfied with the current status of the island, driving many to support statehood or independence, the group is not interested in sovereignty.  The group has received the endorsement of the Libertarian Party of Spain and 1,700 likes on Facebook. Most are from Puerto Ricans, but some are from bemused Spaniards. One comment from a Spaniard on the page laments the current state of the Spanish economy, reading, “the gesture of affection is really appreciated, but given that we are all going to shit I’d almost rather stay with the USA.”

But this give me the umph to say “sure, let’em go”:

Puerto Rico has earned the nickname “America’s Greece” for its increasingly alarming economic state. In December of last year, the island reached $70 billion in debt and 15% unemployment – astronomical numbers in a territory of almost four million.

 

 

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