Reply With Quote
he's just trying to make republicans feel good about voting for romney.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...for-statehood/
(CNN) – Rick Santorum on Wednesday laid out one caveat he would hold for the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico before it obtained statehood, saying the island would need to make English its principal language before it becomes a state.
Santorum portrayed the language requirement as a matter of federal law, though no language provision currently exists for territories seeking statehood. In the past, territories seeking admission to the United States have been required to adopt English as the language of state government.
– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
Speaking with the Puerto Rico newspaper Vocero, Santorum was asked if he would support statehood for an island where the primary language is Spanish.
"Like any other state, there needs to be compliance with this and any other federal law," Santorum said. "And that is that English needs to be the principal language. There are other states with more than one language, like Hawaii, but to be a state of the United States, English must be the principal language."
Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Cons ution spells out how states can be admitted to the union, making no mention of language requirements. The passage states: "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress."
A second clause states Congress has the power to "dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States."
In the past, Congress has passed "enabling acts" for territories seeking statehood, and has included provisions requiring English to be the prevailing language as a requirement for admission. The Louisiana Enabling Act of 1811 mandated the new state conduct its official business in the same language as the United States.
In 1906, Congress passed an enabling act requiring Oklahoma use English in its public schools before it obtained statehood.
There is currently no law declaring an official language of the United States, though several attempts have been made to give English that designation. Thirty-one states have passed laws naming English as their official language.
Both English and Spanish are official languages of Puerto Rico, though Spanish is by far the dominant language on the island. According to census data released in 2012, 81% of Puerto Rico residents spoke English "less than very well," with 95% saying Spanish was the language they spoke at home.
Congress would need to approve statehood for Puerto Rico after residents voted in a referendum. Many members of Congress, some of whom have pushed for a federal law declaring English as the official language of the United States, would no doubt raise the island's language as an issue before voting for statehood.
Santorum was campaigning in Puerto Rico Wednesday ahead of the territory's GOP primary on Sunday. There are 20 total delegates at stake.
~~~Yeah, this is going to help. What the heck was he thinking?
he's just trying to make republicans feel good about voting for romney.
Well done Rick. Way to take a non-story and create an additional reason for people to not like you out of it.
What a ing moron. English isn't even the national language for the 50 states we currently have.
Santorum will pull the re ed, ignorant Republican vote for sure. Which is probably about 30% of all voters. Good job Republicans!
It's sad that Huntsman is out of this race and this fool is viable.
Oh, and pissing off the hispanic population of America is a surefire way to win future elections, since they're by far the fastest growing minority in America. (And even if this doesn't affect the majority of the hispanic population, it still makes Santorum look like he's against hispanic immigrants/culture.)
Translation:
"My party seems to be making small inroads with the fastest growing demographic in the US. What can I say to that up?"
I agree that is we do accept another state, the new state government must operate in English, and anyone wanting better commerce will need to as well.
there is no federal law that says English is the official language.
what a dumb
What an idiot. Did it just sound good to him? Did he THINK it was a law on the books somewhere? Where the does a candidate for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES get that kind of erroneous information dumped into his skull? Damn the Republicans REALLY don't want to win in November. The more unpopular Obama gets, the worse his opponents are."And that is that English needs to be the principal language. There are other states with more than one language, like Hawaii, but to be a state of the United States, English must be the principal language."
If he gets the nomination do you think he makes Gabriel his VP?
smh
Why even bring that up though? Why not just say, "I would love to see about Puerto Rico becoming a state, and I'm sure we could look at the pros and cons of developing a path to statehood for these great people."
How hard is that?
In a very outspoken field Stan Huntsman was among the most outspoken in favor of attacking Iran. It's hard to remember b/c Huntsman stepped aside so long ago, but it's so.
Every candidate has stances I disagree with. But I at least believed that Huntsman would listen to others with differing viewpoints, and his beliefs on various issues at least seemed to come from thought-out foundations I could agree with. Santorum's beliefs on how to run a country stem only from his belief in God, from what I've seen. I don't see any cogent analysis of the issues facing us or honest answers.
I don't care if faith informs a politician's beliefs. When that religious beliefs looks like the sole motivation behind all his other beliefs is what scares me.
That's what Santorum wants everyone to believe. W did too. Doesn't this script seem kinda familiar?
That's part of my lament WH. Everyone of his decisions that doesn't deal with "faith" or "family" (and god knows he tries to shoehorn them into every topic) is a generic Republican answer (immigration bad! taxes bad! Hulk smash!) with no actual real-world examples/analysis of how to enact those ideas in the real world.
At this point it's about getting asses in voting booths and more money in the bank. Without that, nothing else can happen.
Sad thing is, the everything else got crowded out by electoral maneuvering. Policy shop got swallowed by the political shop.
Who said I want them to be a state?
I haven't thought much about it.
I share the idea of one national language standard. It doesn't mean people can't speak other languages, just that official national business will be in one language rather than two or more. ever see what misinterpretations in contracts of multiple languages can do? Now how might a law written in multiple languages be misconstrued, when we have enough lawyers to misconstrue the laws in one language already.
I'm talking about him responding to whoever asked about possible statehood of Puerto Rico.
And yes, even if he wants one national language for government, why say that in Puerto Rico? It's just dumb. Considering that most of them speak Spanish, it's not going to win him many votes.
Cater to one side, win some of their votes, lose other votes.
Santorum just padding his nativist/racist/white Christian supremacist cred for his lucrative speechifying to nativist/racist/etc audiences.
Puerto Rico doesn't want to become a state anyway. Right now they get all the benefits of citizenship without paying income tax.
Why would he cater to the "pro English" side while he was IN Puerto Rico to try and swing their votes his way?
While he's at it, maybe he should go to Alabama and talk about how much he hates southern cooking, then he can go to Texas and share his dislike of college football, and then wrap it up by heading to Seattle and wondering why everyone is so obsessed with coffee and IPads.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
