But that’s my point. I think you have the order of operations wrong. The multiple results of past referendums have been, in general, against statehood. The most recent showed a bare majority. Without an unquestionable majority of Puerto Ricans making clear what they want for Puerto Rico, asking congress to take unilateral action on the political status of the island – whether it’s statehood, commonwealth, or independent nation – is just a rehearsal of the same domestic-dependent imperialism that made Puerto Rico a commonwealth in the first place. The fact that congress not doing anything means PR stays a commonwealth is a result of that being the current status quo. If the people of PR want a change in the political status of PR, they need to initiate that and make it clear.

You can’t say that the referendums don’t count, that internal politics influences the results, and that it’s just fear-mongering because PR wouldn’t be able to be economically stable as an independent nation – all internal problems that don’t need congress’s involvement to be remedied – and then simultaneously criticize congress for not doing anything. That’s a wildly colonized mindset. Not doing anything is precisely what congress should be doing, if they have any respect for the self-governance and desires of the Puerto Rico itself.