Posted on 03/16/2012 6:43:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum on Thursday defended a condition he said Puerto Rico must meet to be eligible for statehood: "English needs to be the principal language."
Campaigning in the territory ahead of their Sunday primary, Santorum had on Wednesday said, "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."
Speaking to CNN's National Political Correspondent Jim Acosta on Thursday, he stood by his comments.
"Obviously Spanish will be spoken here on the island. But this needs to be a bilingual country not just a Spanish speaking country," he said. "Right now it is overwhelmingly Spanish speaking but it needs to have in order for it to integrate into American society, English has to be a language that is spoken here also and spoken universally."
Puerto Rico designates both English and Spanish as official languages. There is no federal law stipulating an official language, but 31 states have adopted measures and Congress has included adoption of English as a requirement for statehood in previous cases.
Voters will be surveyed on their interest in statehood in a November referendum.
Asked by a reporter if the language issue would be a deal breaker, Santorum said he considers the matter important.
"I think that would be a condition," he said. "I think it's important."
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
I love that he is so principled. He can’t be named a flip flopper like Romney.
NO STATEHOOD
not unless another, more conservative territory wants statehood too.(i cant think of any??? Guam???Samoa??? these guys are cargo cultists...and probably love the welfare state.).
2 Senators is way to many to give a liberal state without a conservative balance.
Waiting for the race-baitors to come out of the woodwork on this reasonable condition for statehood.
“RS has ‘hurt himself’ with (fill in the blank) minority voters...”
Wow. Finally a politician with **lls. Was not exactly enthused with Santorum as the only option to stop Romney but I’m liking him more and more.
I used to be tech support for a large (bell) company ,, anytime we had a switch problem in PR it was a nightmare ,, my only contact that spoke English was a secretary who understood nothing technical... There’s a reason why there isn’t one English language radio station on the island... unless it has to do with food stamps or welfare they just don’t want to understand the language.
I’ve been to Puerto Rico more than once. I don’t think English is a problem. I got around pretty fine and almost everyone speaks English. What’s the big deal here?
It’s not going to happen. We’ve never required it before. Dumb thing to introduce.
RE: NO STATEHOOD
Why statehood? Just declare independence — The Republic of Puerto Rico.
The Philippines became independent over 70 years ago and their democracy is still thriving and they’re still friendly to America.
Why can’t Puerto Rico be the same?
Santorum has close ties to Puerto Rico. he introduced some woman representative from Puero Rico at the Florda debate.
Santorum has close ties to Puerto Rico. he introduced some woman representative from Puero Rico at the Florda debate.
The Drudge Report says that Romney say a the the same about English in Puerto Ricow.
Why does this issue even keep coming up?
Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States. Every so often, we hear that they may want either independence or statehood. Why is it either/or? Why do they have to change their current status at all? Who is pressuring for it?
Or, why do we hear calls for statehood for Puerto Rico, but never for Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, etc. What is so special about Puerto Rico that they should be a state?
What does this make, about fifty times this has been posted
Because Santorum's campaign is undisciplined. Rick is like a precocious puppy jumping at at treat, responding to whatever is asked him, without even trying to reframe the issue to his own advantage. It is distraction after distraction. Not a huge deal now, but it would be later in a general campaign.
American borders, language, culture:
Conservatives want to conserve them,
leftists want them destroyed.
I think all ambitions can be dealt with, but it takes TWO REPUBLICAN STATES for one Democrat state this time.
From the article:
Congress has included adoption of English as a requirement for statehood in previous cases.
I hope you're typing on a cellphone...otherwise, you're gonna have one h$ll of a hangover!;-)
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