A column making the rounds on LinkedIn argues that Puerto Rico's parties are built around the wrong question - not how to govern the island, but what its ultimate status should be. Its author, Antonio (Tony) Santos, writes that Guam gets at least one thing right: its voters organize politics around how government should work today, not just what the territory might become tomorrow.^[1][2] Puerto Rico's three main parties - the pro-statehood PNP, the pro-commonwealth PPD and the pro-independence PIP - were formed around status options, Santos notes, and the result is what he calls a paralysis of purpose: deep, present-day disagreements over taxes, schools, energy and public safety get papered over by a shared constitutional dream that no local election can deliver.^[3][4] His comparison is literal. Guam's major parties run under national banners - Democrats and Republicans - and its 2024 legislative elections were fought, and won, on governing lines: Republicans took 53.67 percent of the vote and 9 of the Legislature's 15 seats, ousting a Democratic majority.^[5][6][7][8] Santos's sharpest point is legal: under the U.S. Constitution, Congress holds authority over territorial status, so a local politician cannot honestly promise to deliver it. Statehood is not a budget, commonwealth is not a business plan, and independence is not an operating manual, he writes - voters should judge candidates on how they plan to manage the island today.^[9][10] The argument lands as the island's own results show the status-era coalitions shifting. In the November 5, 2024 plebiscite, statehood drew 58.61 percent of valid votes - a fourth consecutive pro-statehood result - yet two weeks of election math told a different story about party loyalty: PNP governor Jenniffer González-Colón won with just 41.22 percent, while the PPD fell to third place at 21.47 percent behind an independence-alliance candidate at 30.81 percent.^{[11][12][13][14][15]} Disclosure: Santos has his own status position - he ran for House District 1 under the minor-party Project Dignidad banner in 2024, taking 3.3 percent, and publicly supports exploring reunification with Spain as a fourth status option. He is also a News is My Business columnist focused on economic self-sufficiency.^[16][17][18]