If you're like me, you've seen the blogads touting Puerto Rico's disenfranchised status. And that makes you sad. Not only because voting is good, but because Puerto Rico is eight electoral votes with "John Kerry" written all of over them.
Moreover, if you're like me, you're cross that states like Wyoming are greatly over-represented in Congress and in the electoral college. Why millions of Puerto Ricans get no vote, a few hundred thousand Wyomingites get three. How fair is that?
So I have a simple, constitutional solution to all of this: Make the territory ("Commonwealth" is a fancy-schmancy term for "territory) of Puerto Rico part of the state of Wyoming!
All that this would require, I believe, is a majority vote in both houses. No silly constitutional amendments. No waiting on Puerto Rico to decide on whether or not it really wants to be a state.
Some may note that dividing a state or taking away territory requires the consent of the state legislature; but as far as I can tell, adding territory does not. See Article IV, Section 3.
Section. 3.
Clause 1: 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.
Clause 2: The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.
The likely consequence of course would be that Offshore Wyoming (the territory formerly known as Puerto Rico) would essentially hijack the state government of Mainland Wyoming. In other words, "Sayonara, Suckers."
Really, would this not solve all of our problems?