Gastonia, NC Correspondent- Let’s look at Puerto Rico as an example for the purposes of this question.  Not only do the vast majority of people there not want to be independent, support for statehood is nearing all-time highs.  Rather than cutting them loose, I say we make PR a state and stop letting the country degenerate into a third-world sinkhole.  Bad investments, poor civil planning and insanely inept governance has turned what should be a tropical paradise into a poor cousin to the U.S.  Bringing the country into the fold would help all those problems, and in the end we would bear an economic boon as a result.  Our other territories are by and large small locales that likely wouldn’t survive on their own, and I don’t really see the benefit in cutting them loose. Continue reading →