This diary is a response to the following statement by Kos on the Guam primaries-
I'm honestly curious why non-states have primaries? I've got nothing against statehood if they want it, and in that case representation would obviously make sense. But as territories?
In any case, thems the rules. They voted in Guam today. Catch results updates here. See pictures here.
This statement/question has been posed not just by Kos but by many people on this site and in the MSM, especially since this nomination fight might actually make it to Puerto Rico....
So why should these territories be involved in the nomination process of the President if the territories have not chosen to be states???
Good question.
Answer #1- All major American territories are territories by virtue of American imperialism and are spoils of war treated as colonies for the entire duration of American control.
Lets not mince words. America is an empire. It has colonies. These colonies are called 'territories' and given some sort of self-determination in order to appease the United Nations anti-colonial pronouncements since the 1950's.
Puerto Rico is a prime example of this phenomena. When the majority of world colonies were being given their independence in the 1950's and 1960's, the United States was busy developing a workable 'solution' with Puerto Rican elites to keep Puerto Rico off the colony list so that the Americans could maintain their naval and military bases intact in a very important strategic area of the Atlantic. The "Commonwealth" or "Free Associated State" moniker given to this arrangement is pure colonialism. Americans directly and indirectly still control a vast portion of Puerto Rican daily life, contrary to the pronouncements of the Puerto Rican elite in the Popular Democratic Party who maintain that it is an 'equal' arrangement.
Same thing goes for Guam, although I cannot elaborate on the specific system that the people of Guam have set up.
Ok, so what? What does this have to do with the issue of them participating in the primaries?
Answer #2- As unwilling participants in the American empire and as subjugated peoples since the beginning of the American colonial experiment, the people of the territories justly deserve some participation in the empire's electoral process.
Again, let's face it. America is an empire and our elections are about who controls that empire. Simple.
Currently, the territories have no representation in Congress aside from delegates who only vote in committees and the territories do not participate at all in the Electoral College even though all territory residents are American citizens.
Congress, by virtue of the power vested to it by the Constitution, has complete control over the territories and its peoples. For example, with a simple legislative act signed by President Wilson, all Puerto Ricans who did not object were granted American citizenship in 1917. This was conveniently done to make sure that Puerto Ricans could be cannon fodder in WWI, but thats beside the point. Congress, and by extension the President, are all powerful over the territories and the territories have no power to change this.
Participating in the nominating process for President gives the territories some voice in an otherwise completely closed political system.
Ok, so what? Why don't they just choose to become states then so that they can participate on equal footing with real states?
Answer #3- Even if the people of these territories wanted to be states, Congress still has the power to approve of this.
So let's assume for arguments sake that Puerto Rico voted overwhelmingly to become a state, something like 90% to 10%. Congress could still, and I would argue would not, grant them statehood. America does not need to allow all persons knocking on the door in.
This is a fact even though it has been documented that America has consistently been manipulating all attempts at self-determination by these very territories! COINTELPRO was directly aimed at Puerto Rican nationalist and independence groups, completely destroying some of the organizations and creating a culture of fear and paranoia among all independence supporters on the island. Not only that, but the local government actively kept files on independence supporters and prevented many from getting employment.
So why not CHOOSE statehood? SIMPLE. BECAUSE IT IS A FALSE CHOICE. The answers above all point to the simple fact that these territories exist within a very controlled and closed political system that has manipulated them for the empire's own benefit and will keep manipulating them for its own self interest.
Kos, having the territories participate in the Presidential electoral process actually helps give these colonies some say in their own destiny, a destiny which has been radically altered by the forces of American imperialism. Throwing the old 'they should choose to be states' in order to participate without understanding the set of false choices and imperial motivation that exists behind the political reality of these territories is not a reality based. Allowing them to participate might actually help to elect American politicians who won't keep on manipulating and altering their political realities.
We should value Guam's and other territories participation in this process not only because they give voice to these otherwise unrepresented Americans but also because it gives us the opportunity to understand a bit more about America's own complicated history...
If my arguments have holes in them or if I did not elaborate as well as I should have, then I apologize. I'm in the middle of studying for my last set of law school finals but had to respond to that statement since it actually surprised me to be coming from the host of this site.