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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/07/28/want-democratic-accountability-look-ricky-martin-not-robert-mueller/?utm_term=.e6338b7164ed">https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/07/28/want-democratic-accountability-look-ricky-martin-not-robert-mueller/?utm_term=.e6338b7164ed</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Want democratic accountability? Look to
Ricky Martin, not Robert Mueller.</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Dan Berger and Carly
Goodman July 28, 2019<br>
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<h2 data-pb-field="subheadlines.basic">Direct action,
not endless hearings, is the key to real political
change.</h2>
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<p data-elm-loc="1">Seeds of discontent are growing in
both the United States and in Puerto Rico. But while
a democratic revolution blooms in the streets of
Puerto Rico and produces real results — the governor
finally agreed to resign — no equivalent appears on
the horizon in the U.S.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="2">Indeed, many Democrats and critics
of the Trump presidency put their faith in Robert
Mueller’s investigation to achieve justice. Yet
while the investigation produced indictments and
damning evidence against the president, without the
political will to initiate impeachment hearings, it
is unlikely to create political change or provide
accountability. Those tuning into Mueller’s
testimony this week to see democracy in action
should have looked to Puerto Rico instead.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="3">There, when leaders proved unable
or unwilling to hold a corrupt executive
accountable, the people took to the streets —
repeatedly and with determination and joy. After 12
days of historic protest involving hundreds of
thousands of people, the legislature initiated
impeachment proceedings, leading Gov. Ricardo
Rosselló to announce his resignation.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="4">Even after his resignation was
secured, the protests continue — because this
uprising is about more than personnel change. For
years, Puerto Ricans have been organizing in
opposition to U.S.-backed austerity policies
supported by the island’s conservative politicians.
For Americans wanting to not just challenge Trump
but the very social, cultural and economic
structures that have emboldened him, Puerto Rico
provides inspiration.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="5">The Puerto Rican protests were
ignited by the revelation of almost 900 pages of
crude and offensive texts between Rosselló and his
inner-circle. They built on years of organizing in
opposition to the austerity policies. But the real
root of the protests actually <a
href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807859544/puerto-rico-in-the-american-century/">dates
back</a> to the United States assuming colonial
control over the island in 1898, leaving the people
of Puerto Rico both part of the U.S. and outside of
it — a curious condition the Supreme Court once
endorsed as “foreign in a domestic sense.” </p>
<p data-elm-loc="6">Puerto Ricans can be drafted to
the military but they can’t vote for president, and
the island’s congressional representative can’t
vote, either. The United States has used Puerto Rico
as a laboratory of cruelty for <a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/vieques-invisible-health-crisis/498428/">military
drills</a>, <a
href="https://waragainstallpuertoricans.com/carpetas/">police
surveillance</a> and <a
href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/puerto-rico-enters-a-new-age-of-austerity/559565/">austerity</a>.
The U.S. has also overdetermined the island’s
political economy, first through decades of outright
military rule and then, since the island implemented
a form of self-government in 1952, by holding veto
power over it.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="7">The U.S. transformed Puerto Rico
into a monocrop sugar economy in the early 20th
century; a few decades later <a
href="https://nacla.org/article/puerto-rico%252527s-pharmaceutical-fix">the
U.S. pharmaceutical industry</a> all but
controlled the island’s economy. In addition to
causing heavy pollution, pharmaceutical companies
tested their products on Puerto Ricans — often
involuntarily — which led to massive sterilization
of Puerto Rican women, as scholar <a
href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520232587/reproducing-empire">Laura
Briggs</a> has written. The establishment of the
PROMESA financial management board and the ensuing
acceleration of austerity policies in 2016 was
simply the latest reminder that control of the
island resided in Washington, not San Juan.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="8">Like the United States, Puerto
Rico grapples with racism and sexism. But the
severity of those problems and the divisions they
exacerbate has not prevented people from taking
united action against exploitation. Puerto Ricans
have long shown that protest and other forms of
collective action are key to overcoming injustice
and callous disregard for their fates.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="9">One such issue has been the U.S.
military presence on the island. In 1975, Puerto
Rican activists forced the Navy to stop running
bombing drills on Culebra. For the next three
decades, a protest <a
href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/military-power-and-popular-protest/9780813530918">campaign
resisted</a> U.S. military use of Vieques, another
island in Puerto Rico’s archipelago. A dramatic
series of civil disobedience actions finally led the
U.S. military to leave Vieques in 2003. As Puerto
Rican fishers blocked military drills in simple
dinghies, they showed that persistent sacrifice for
the higher good can accomplish big changes.
Nonetheless, unexploded munitions remain a toxic
hazard on both islands, now popular tourist sites.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="10">In the 1970s and 1990s, Puerto
Ricans of all political persuasions also <a
href="https://nacla.org/article/more-25-years-puerto-rican-political-prisoners">organized</a>
for the freedom of Puerto Rican independence
activists imprisoned in the U.S., resulting in
presidential commutations for 21 people who had all
served decades in prison. While Beltway pundits
lament the absence of bipartisanship in Washington,
the successful campaigns to free these political
prisoners united erstwhile antagonists —
statehooders and independence supporters — in
service of a larger moral vision.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="11">Hard hit by financial crisis in
2006, <a href="https://puertoricosyllabus.com/">Puerto
Rico’s debt grew</a> rapidly. The island’s
conservative government responded with steep budget
cuts — unpopular and unsuccessful moves that the
PROMESA board has accelerated since 2016. Opposition
to austerity, <a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/bankers-behind-puerto-ricos-debt-crisis/">imposed
by U.S. banks and then by Congress</a>, has
brought Puerto Ricans <a
href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520300170/policing-life-and-death">into
the streets</a> repeatedly in the past decade. In
2010-2011, and again in 2017, students across the
University of Puerto Rico campuses went on strike
against steep budget cuts, tuition hikes and
layoffs.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="12">In addition to cuts, the PROMESA
board has also tried to privatize Puerto Rico’s
power supply and reduce pensions and vacation time
for public workers. In May 2018, students and unions
joined forces in a general strike against PROMESA,
known on the island as “la junta,” a term typically
reserved for military dictatorships.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="13">This long tradition of activism
set the stage for the current uprising. The Puerto
Rican people understood that they had the power to
topple the governor, who has supported these deeply
unpopular policies, as well as being plagued by
accusations of self-dealing against him and his
cabinet. But the protests have loftier goals: They
aimed not just to depose Rosselló, but also to
secure meaningful self-governance and social welfare
for the people of Puerto Rico. Theirs is a call for
<a
href="https://nacla.org/news/2019/07/18/protests-puerto-rico-are-about-life-and-death">justice
long denied</a> by both the United States and by
self-dealing political leaders whose failure to
address deep inequities have accelerated in the
failed recovery from <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/style/feminist-collective-puerto-rico-protests.html?searchResultPosition=3">Hurricane
Maria</a>.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="14">The marches in Puerto Rico this
month have been as joyous as they are indignant.
Popular musicians Bad Bunny, Calle-13, Residente and
Ricky Martin helped lead the protests, which
promised to <a
href="https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1153072393579094016">“make
the country unmanageable”</a> unless Rosselló
resigned. Martin, who is gay and was a target of
homophobic slurs in Rosselló’s text messages, paused
his career to join the protests. He can be <a
href="https://www.out.com/politics/2019/7/24/ricky-martin-joins-protests-against-puerto-rican-governor">seen</a>
waving a rainbow flag atop a truck, surrounded by
Puerto Rican flags and people laughing, dancing and
chanting. That joy, echoed in videos of Puerto
Ricans <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2019/jul/25/the-moment-puerto-ricans-learn-the-governor-will-resign-after-weeks-of-mass-protests-video">watching</a>
Rosselló’s resignation speech, was a reminder that
even in hard times, collective action can be a
joyous affair. In fact, it can supply the joy needed
to survive hard times.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="15">What’s happening in Puerto Rico,
and among the Puerto Rican diaspora in the United
States, is a reinvigoration of the 1960s slogan that
“politics is in the streets.” </p>
<p data-elm-loc="16">Americans, including elected
officials, who are frustrated with their political
leaders should follow the lead of Puerto Ricans.
Rather than watching spectacle on television, they
should be demanding action by taking action.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="17">To be sure, Americans have taken
to the streets in recent years in support of black
lives and to resist the Trump administration’s
excesses and cruelty. Mass protests and sustained
advocacy have changed our political discourse and
turned back some extreme manifestations of Trump’s
will, such as the airport protests of his first
Muslim ban and <a
href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/thousands-protest-ice-cities-targeted-weekend-raids/story?id=64312657">recent
demonstrations</a> to prevent deportations during
planned ICE raids.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="18">Yet Democratic leaders have
hesitated to begin impeachment hearings against
Trump, and the daily onslaught of news of American
cruelty has left many feeling powerless. While
demonstrations against <a
href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/22/us/nashville-neighbors-help-prevent-ice-arrest/index.html">immigration
raids</a> and <a
href="https://www.neveragainaction.com/">concentration
camps continue</a>, many people have turned their
sights to the 2020 election in lieu of acting in the
present.</p>
<p data-elm-loc="19">Events in Puerto Rico, however,
show that holding back is no recipe for change.
There, concerted, consistent protest against a
corrupt executive turned what may have been just
another scandal into the governor’s resignation.
This action not only laid the blueprint for removing
an unfit political leader, but also for building the
unity and energy to enact deeper societal change and
prevent future such leaders. We in the United States
need to learn a lesson from Puerto Ricans and rise
up. Our democracy — and our humanity — is at stake.</p>
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