Versión Español
EspañolThe Democratic National Committee’s vice chairman, Donna Brazile, has called for a new constitution for the United States. She says it would be to protect the United States from “charlatans, loudmouths and the 1 percent.” She has not, however, specified what should replace the constitution or what should be included.
Just let that set in for a moment.
She, and most likely her DNC colleagues, wants to scrap the Constitution of the United States of America — the document that heralded a change from monarchs to republican representation of the people: government of the people, for the people, and by the people.
Those who cling to that document and its Bill of Rights are called constitutionalists, paleoconservatives, or constitutional conservatives. Those who oppose or defy it are progressives and neoconservatives. She wants to “save” the United States from the very people who want to keep this nation free, and restore what freedom has been lost.
Is this the prospective statehood that Puerto Rico’s New Progressive Party is fighting for? I think not. The NPP in Puerto Rico has long sought equality under the law, in part because of the constitution.
That Bill of Rights … would be eliminated completely if today’s political elitists were to replace the constitution.
That Bill of Rights, emulated so many times in so many ways, would be eliminated completely if today’s political elitists were to replace the constitution. Would the Marxist-left or the crony neocons guarantee freedom of the press for libertarians and paleoconservatives? Hardly. See the ongoing push to rekindle the “Fairness Doctrine” and the crackdown on free speech since 9/11.
Would they ban electronic surveillance like I do in my proposal? What about quartering of troops and the right to keep and bear arms? The right to due process? I think not.
The intent is there to silence one side of the political debate, so in a revised constitution, those rights would fall by the wayside. Free speech and press, for example, would easily become “hate speech.” Anyone speaking in a politically incorrect manner about gender or a certain religion could be considered offensive and, therefore, not allowed to speak.
I changed my support for Puerto Rico statehood on account of the erosion of the US republic and so many other realizations.
Among those is the US national debt, currently at US17.75 trillion and growing. If you include unfunded liabilities, such as Social Security and Medicare, it balloons to $205 trillion. As US citizens, Puerto Ricans are responsible for that debt. As a state, Puerto Rico would have to pay for that debt and have no legal exit.
Every man, woman and child owes more than $660,000 in total debt. At some point — maybe soon — the collectors are going to come calling and demand their money back. When that happens, even people in the US territories will be paying up, at least until a default.
If a default were to arise, what I describe as a “dollar shock” would occur. Its value would crumble, and correspondingly, prices would go through the roof.
The status choices facing Puerto Rico are very simple: (1) stay with the United States under the leadership of people who want to take your rights away, regardless of party label (as a state or commonwealth), or (2) become a free and independent nation that writes its own constitution and is responsible for its own debt.
That is the choice. It isn’t statehood versus commonwealth versus independence; it is stay or leave. Are you prepared to bear the a debt in excess of half a million dollars, on top of Puerto Rico’s own indebtedness? Are you also ready to live in a perpetual police state where every call and every email is read and saved for future perusal?
Statehood once represented the perfect solution for Puerto Rico: freedom, equality, and better economics. It no longer does.
Statehood once represented the perfect solution for Puerto Rico: freedom, equality, and better economics. It no longer does. Now, statehood represents a loss of freedom, cronyism, and debt.
Before the next vote, I urge you to take a moment to consider what the real options are and what they actually mean before you make a final decision on Puerto Rico’s status. If you agree that the time for statehood has passed, then I hope you will join me and others to build a Puerto Rico that embodies the fundamental and natural rights that once made the United States a great nation.
