Consensus?

Can you have consensus when only 23 percent of an electorate has voted? This is the conundrum Puerto Rico faces after a plebiscite on the question of statehood. Although the final tally was greater than 90 percent in favor, anti-statehood voters had boycotted the ballot box. From a communications perspective, the vote was a failure. It hardly shows agreement among Puerto Ricans that they should change their status from a territory to a state. That is only the beginning of the issue. Puerto Rico is broke and swamped with debt. A half-million citizens have fled the island already to the US and those left behind are subject to ruinous taxes to make up for the budget shortfall. Why would Congress accept the territory as a state at this time? The governor of Puerto Rico needs to do some serious PR both in his homeland and in Washington, DC in order to make his case.