Puerto Rico should become a state of the United States of America
The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.
After 2 votes and with 11 points ahead, the winner is...
- Publication date
- Last updated date
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- Standard
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- 2
- Time for argument
- One week
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- 30,000
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- Two weeks
- Point system
- Multiple criterions
- Voting system
- Open
Puerto Rico should become a state of the United States of America.
Preamble
Definitions
Just look at how the US treated PR after a category 5 hurricane (Maria) hit the island a few years ago. The US basically left them for dead so to speak despite the fact that government aid could've been sent immediately after the storm passed. If I'm not mistaken, hurricane Irma hit PR the same year and the island got the same bad results from dealing with the US.
US has funded a forced sterilization program among the women of Puerto Rico many decades ago
It all comes down to greed & dominance. The US would love to have full control over the island's natural resources. This point has been made many different times throughout the world when dealing with western occupiers.
Con joined this debate not intent on engaging in discussion, but rather to act as a type-2 troll, and largely an off topic one at that. "Your Alt-Right way of thinking is downright ridiculous." Served as a fine example of the conduct violations which caused the allotment (not even getting into the ranting and raving about race).
Arguments are no contest (a researched argument vs. deranged assertions). Not being a state continually hurts Puerto Rico, as both sides showed (lack of support following a hurricane,m and the president having no incentive to change this); similarly there is no benefit reaped from this.
Pro well supported their case with evidence. Chiefly they predicted counter cases to invalidate them ahead of time, such as the population being greater than many US states; they did this so well that con did not bother finding even one shred of evidence to make a warranted argument.
Arguments - Pro opened with a simple argument about democratic rights and enfranchisement. It was not the most sophisticated or in-depth argument I've ever seen on the subject of territory statehood matters, but it was adequate. Con responded by suggesting that granting PR statehood would lead to its increased exploitation. Con used examples like US neglect of PR during Hurricane Maria to support this. Unfortunately, these supporting examples failed to support because Con failed to link them to his original claim. In the case of Hurricane Maria, he points out that the US neglected PR, but he fails to show how granting PR statehood would make situations like this worse. For these reasons, I give arguments to Pro.
Sources - Pro
Pro's sources are decent (although I recommend using the sources within Wikipedia instead of Wikipedia itself), but the main reason sources are going to Pro is because Con made several statements that should have been validated by a source, but were not. For example, he asserted the US was engaged in forced sterilization of PR women, but provided no evidence to back the claim up. Essentially, Con lost sources, rather than Pro winning sources.
Extra comment: Pro, your opening round was filled with too much debate groundwork (definitions, burdens, basic description of PR status quo). That stuff should go in your debate description, for two reasons. One, it allows you to devote more characters to substantive argument in R1. Two, it allows prospective opponents to have a clear idea of what they're getting themselves into before joining. Just my two cents.
Are you even aware that you just agreed with what I've been saying?
Hispanic is an ethnic group that share Spanish/African/Indian culture. Spaniard is basically a Caucasian from Europe..
PR was colonized by Spain and the people tend to (Identify) with the colonizer's culture.
Spaniard is one type of Hispanic. Native Spaniards are also white. It´s possible to be all white and all hispanic.
George Zimmerman is clearly Hispanic but he identifies as white.
You clearly don't understand ethnicities because a Spaniard and a Hispanic are not the same.
White Hispanics are still Hispanics, so most puerto ricans are white.
Most of PR's population isn't white. They have the option to self identify as white on the census.
Since most of PR´s population is white, even whiter than the US, how could Trump not giving them funds be a racist act?
We should be giving PR more money though. They needed $90 billion and they got half that. Any state would have gotten more if they were in that situation. Gotta be consistent.
In a debate about an island's statehood, you still tried to demonize whitey. Shame on you.
Definition: A prepositional phrase is a group of words that (lacks either a verb or a subject), and that functions as a unified part of speech.
As I stated earlier, the word "comments" was never the subject to begin with.
They have different prepositional phrases, so they are not the same sentence.
Original sentence: "99.9% of these comments is pure nonsense." 2nd sentence: "99.9% of the comments is an ideal number."
The same sentence structure but If the first sentence is incorrect then how is the 2nd sentence correct if you exchange "is" for "are"?
Sir, a sentence can have 2 subjects which makes both examples correct. On the other hand, the word "are" can't be used correctly in both examples.
For those examples you provided, it appears that the percentage number was the subject. So, those would be correct.
Your original sentence:
99.9% of these comments is pure nonsense.
The word 'comments' was the subject. Try taking it out. 99.9% is pure nonsense. It doesn't express a complete thought. 99.9% of what? The sentence: "Comments are pure nonsense" does express a complete thought. It might be unrepresentative of your message, but it is still a complete sentence. '
Sir, I'm referring to the percentage number, not the word "comments."
For example: 99.9% of the comments (is) an ideal number or 100% of the proceeds (is) the best estimation.
The word "are" wouldn't sound right.
The subject was 'comments', which is plural. Therefore, the verb should have been 'are'.
I don´t want welfare for anybody, so I would agree with your statement regarding this.
Depends on if the 99.9% (is) referred to in a singular form vs a plural form.
Oops!
Better yet, we just don't give them welfare.
are*
99.9% of these comments is pure nonsense.
If PR became a state, then more voluntary investment would come to the island and less welfare would be necessary.
By massively reducing military spending and abolishing the policy of being able to fight in two major conflicts at once.
Ok, with all these new spending plans, how exactly can we afford to give Puerto Rico more funding?
I'm not all about these $1 trillion deficits, my dude.
We should be giving them more funding, not less. All of the US needs funding, starting with a nationalised health service!
We should stop giving them welfare instead.
I am arguing that Puerto Rico should apply and be accepted as the 51st State under the New States Clause.
I completely agree with #1
There are two components here: PR petitioning for statehood and the US accepting. Which are you arguing for?
American samoa is too far from Hawaii to be part of that state. I would merge the US islands and Puerto Rico. I would let the Dakotas be seperate states. They are too different and what´s the point of merging them? I would abolish all native reservations. They keep the natives too poor and there would be more investment to the regions if the native territory was part of the US.
I would make all pacific territories & possessions part of Hawaii. All Atlantic t & ps a new state with San Juan as Capitol. I would make DC part of MD. And consolidate north and South Dakota with bismark as capitol. And Montana and Wyoming with Billings as capitol. Then I would make a new state out of all native reservations and federally managed land. Retain 50 states
I think Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Mariana Islands should become states. Thoughts?