It's time for Puerto Rico and DC to become states, or at least fully represented in Congress as such: two senators each + proportional representation in the House of Representatives.
This isn't just saavy political strategy by the Democrats. This is the Civil Rights issue of our time, a moral imperative that will give African Americans and Hispanics a real dose of political power they've been denied for centuries. DC is 60% African American. PR is 98.7% Hispanic. Full representation in Congress will almost certainly send two African American senators and two Hispanic senators to the Senate, and similarly for their proportional representation in the House. While Voting Rights Acts and similar actions can help enable turnout in
future elections, gerrymandering and state control of elections will
continue to suppress minority vote.
Current population distribution allow the Senate to vastly disproportionately represent whites, this is not in doubt. DC, while only about 700,000 people, is still larger than Vermont and Wyoming, and likely will grow past Alaska, the Dakotas, and maybe Delaware by 2030. Puerto Rico would be the 31st most populous state. Four minority senators will help offset the 12 senators from those small states (all white), and in a fractious near 50-50 split, will allow African American and Hispanic viewpoints to be strongly considered while gathering critical mass for legislative votes.
Hurricane Maria in particular highlights how Puerto Rico should be desperately seeking representation. The ill regard shown by Trump and the US Government would not have occurred if military appropriation and other bills depended on Puerto Rican House and Senate votes. Indeed the humanitarian disaster enacted by the Trump Administration in that time of need demands Puerto Rican admission into the Senate.
As for African Americans, they saved the heart and soul of United States of America in the 2020 election. There is no other way to say it. Nearly 90% of them voted for Biden, in addition to 60-70% of Hispanic voters, and helped keep our country from sliding into a racist and fascist near-totalitarian government.
But most importantly, it will also serve as a stinging rebuke to Trumpism and White Nationalism. The Republican party will be forced to confront a reality where Senate and House control is impossible if they follow the overt white nationalism of Trumpism, or even the more covert precursors embodied by the Southern Strategy. The Republican party will need to face the hatred at the heart of its party, and either adapt or die. They will have to face down their media networks of lies and hatred that they use to corral their rabid but dying base.
Arguably, DC and PR statehood will save America.
