Puerto Ricans cannot vote in general elections despite being U.S. citizens, but they can exert a powerful influence with relatives on the mainland. Phones across the island of 3.2 million people were ringing minutes after the speaker derided the U.S. territory Sunday night, and they still buzzed Monday.

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is competing with Trump to win over Puerto Rican communities in Pennsylvania and other swing states. Shortly after stand-up comic Tony Hinchcliffe said that, “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” Puerto Rican reggaeton superstar Bad Bunny announced he was backing Harris.

After Sunday’s rally, a senior adviser for the Trump campain, Danielle Alvarez, said in a statement that Hinchcliffe’s joke did “not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”

        • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          Well, they did. It was referred to by the Framers as a “Living Document” and they intended us to re-write it as we grew as a nation:

          "The question Whether one generation of men has a right to bind another, seems never to have been started either on this or our side of the water… (But) between society and society, or generation and generation there is no municipal obligation, no umpire but the law of nature. We seem not to have perceived that, by the law of nature, one generation is to another as one independant nation to another…

          On similar ground it may be proved that no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation…

          Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19. years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of right."

          -Tommy J.

    • 9point6@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      History tells me that if the US is disenfranchising a group of people, it’s usually racism

    • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Puerto Rico is a protectorate and has its own government. Puerto Ricans can’t vote while on the island, but can vote in the US

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Every US State has its own government, too. I don’t see that as an excuse.

        • mkwt@lemmy.world
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          The Constitution says that each state shall send electors to the electoral college. So Puerto Rico’s status as an unorganized territory is a bit of a blocker.

          The District of Columbia is also not a part of any state, as specified in the Constitution. However, DC explicitly got some electors in the 23rd amendment, so they can vote for President.

          Really, the idea that the United States might have overseas territories that are not on track to statehood is itself an invention of the twentieth century. (Owing to the 1898 Spanish-American war, which caused the US to take over several parts of the ex-Spanish empire).

          • grue@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            Yes, I understand that that’s the reason, but a reason is not the same thing as an excuse.

      • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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        24 hours ago

        No, that can’t be right, because half the comments here say it’s due to racism. So if a Puerto Rican moves to a US state, they still can’t vote, right?

        • anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          19 hours ago

          No, that can’t be right, because half the comments here say it’s due to racism.

          Both those things are true, racists prevent it from becoming a state to prevent it from voting dem.

          So if a Puerto Rican moves to a US state, they still can’t vote, right?

          They can’t do this directly anymore, so they are just disenfranchised on Puerto Rico.