KH Anglais Presse File 4 - American Elections 2020 -Towards a ‘Minority Rule’ ? A/ Kamala Harris, Daughter of Immigrants, Is the Face of America’s Demographic Shift Her parents’ arrival to Berkeley as young graduate students was the beginning of a historic wave of immigration from outside Europe that would change the United States in ways its leaders never imagined. The New York Times, Aug. 15, 2020 When Kamala Harris’s mother left India for California in 1958, the percentage of Americans who were immigrants was at its lowest point in over a century. That was about to change. Her arrival at Berkeley as a young graduate student — and that of another student, an immigrant from Jamaica whom she would marry — was the beginning of a historic wave of immigration from outside Europe that would transform the United States in ways its leaders never imagined. Now, the American- born children of these immigrants — people like Ms. Harris — are the face of this country’s demographic future. Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s choice of Ms. Harris as his running mate* has been celebrated as a milestone* because she is the first Black woman and the first of Indian descent in American history to be on a major party’s presidential ticket. But her selection also highlights a remarkable shift in this country: the rise of a new wave of children of immigrants, or second-generation Americans, as a growing political and cultural force, different from any that has come before. The last major influx of immigrants, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, came primarily from Eastern and Southern Europe. This time the surge* comes from around the world, from India and Jamaica to China and Mexico and beyond. In California, the state where Ms. Harris grew up and which she now represents in the Senate, about half of all children come from immigrant homes. Nationwide, for the first time in this country’s history, whites make up* less than half of the population under the age of 16, the Brookings Institution has found; the trend is driven by larger numbers of Asians, Hispanics and people who are multiracial. Today, more than a quarter of American adults are immigrants or the American-born* children of immigrants. About 25 million adults are American-born children of immigrants, representing about 10 percent of the adult population, according to Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Research Center. By comparison the foreign-born* portion of the population is still much larger — about 42 million adults, or roughly one in six of the country’s 250 million adults, Mr. Passel noted. At 55, Ms. Harris is on the older side of this second generation of Americans whose parents came in those early years. But her family is part of a larger trend that has broad implications for the country’s identity, transforming a mostly white baby-boomer society into a multiethnic and racial patchwork. Because of the influx of immigrants from outside Europe and their children, every successive generation in America in the past half-century has been less white than the one before: Boomers are 71.6 percent white, Millennials are 55 percent white, and post-Gen Z, those born after 2012, are 49.6 percent white, according William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. “The demography is moving forward,” said Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, chancellor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, who has studied these modern children of immigrants from the Caribbean, China, Central America, and Mexico. “This is the future in the U.S.” B/ The Changing demographic make-up of the United-States America's face is changing. Fast. Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large, August 29, 2019 Washington (CNN)In the nearly two decades between 2000 and 2018, more than 100 counties across the United States saw their white population slip under 50%, according to a Pew analysis of census information, the latest in a series of data points that make clear the country's demographics (and, eventually, its politics) are in a period of considerable change. With the addition of the 109 counties that turned from majority white to majority non-white over the last 18 years, there are now 293 non-white majority counties in the United States. While that accounts for only 9% of the total counties in the United States, it's the change over time that is most interesting -- and where it's happening. Two facts stand out in that regard: 1) While 109 counties went from majority white to majority non-white over the past 18 years, just two -- yes, TWO -- went from majority non-white to majority white. (They were Calhoun County in South Carolina and West Feliciana Parish in Louisiana.) 2) Some of the largest counties in the country are changing the fastest. As Pew concludes: "In 21 of the 25 biggest U.S. counties by population, nonwhite groups together make up more than half of residents. Eight of these counties were majority white in 2000 but are no longer: San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Sacramento (all in California), plus Clark (Nevada), Broward (Florida), Tarrant (Texas) and Wayne (Michigan)." And there are a handful of other huge counties (Fairfax in Virginia, Pima in Arizona, Milwaukee in Wisconsin) where the white population has sunk under 52% -- and could well go majority non-white in the next few years. The pattern is clear. Big counties with lots and lots of people in them -- largely clustered in the south, southwest and west -- are rapidly being transformed from white-dominant populations to places where Hispanic, black and Asian faces make up the majority of residents. What does this mean for politics? Well, a lot. While President Donald Trump's 2016 election proved that predictions of demographic doom for Republicans were premature, it also highlighted the increasingly white nature of the GOP coalition. Whites made up 71% of all voters in 2016 -- their lowest percentage ever -- and Trump won that group by 20 points. He lost black voters (12% of the electorate) by 81 points. He lost Hispanics (11% of electorate) by 38 points. He lost Asians (4% of electorate) by 38 points. The trends are clear. The country isn't getting any whiter. And the Republican coalition is growingly increasingly dependent on that shrinking white vote. (George W. Bush took 44% of the Hispanic vote in 2004.) "America is changing demographically, and unless Republicans are able to grow our appeal the way GOP governors have done, the changes tilt the playing field even more in the Democratic direction." Know when that sentence was written -- and by who? It was in the wake of the 2012 election by a group of Republicans tasked by the Republican National Committee with conducting an autopsy of the party's losses. They were right then. The Pew numbers suggest they are even more right now. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/21/u-s-counties-majority-nonwhite/ https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2019/03/21/views-of-demographic-changes-in-america/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/15/the-changing-face-of-congress/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0WVQUHkNmc&ab_channel=TheLateShowwithStephenColbert https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45146811 C/ 1 in every 4 circuit court judges is now a Trump appointee The Washington Post, Dec. 22, 2019 After three years in office, President Trump has remade the federal judiciary, ensuring a conservative tilt for decades and cementing his legacy no matter the outcome of November’s election. Trump nominees make up 1 in 4 U.S. circuit court judges. Two of his picks sit on the Supreme Court. And this past week, as the House voted to impeach the president, the Republican-led Senate confirmed an additional 13 district court judges. In total, Trump has installed 187 judges to the federal bench. Trump’s mark on the judiciary is already having far-reaching effects on legislation and liberal priorities. Just last week, the 5th Circuit struck down a core provision of the Affordable Care Act. One of the two appellate judges who ruled against the landmark law was a Trump appointee. The Supreme Court — where two of the nine justices are conservatives selected by Trump — could eventually hear that case. The 13 circuit courts are the second most powerful in the nation, serving as a last stop for appeals on lower court rulings, unless the case is taken up by the Supreme Court. So far, Trump has appointed 50 judges to circuit court benches. Comparatively, by this point in President Obama’s first term, he had confirmed 25. At the end of his eight years, he had appointed 55 circuit judges. Trump’s appointments have flipped three circuit courts to majority GOP-appointed judges, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York. The president has also selected younger conservatives for these lifetime appointments, ensuring his impact is felt for many years. The executor of this aggressive push is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is almost singularly focused on reshaping the federal judiciary, twice ramming through Senate rule changes to speed up confirmations over Democrats’ objections. “Leave no vacancy behind” is his mantra, McConnell has stated publicly. With a 53-to-47 Senate majority, he has been able to fill openings at breakneck speed. That philosophy did not seem to apply in 2016, when McConnell refused to allow Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, Obama’s choice to replace the late justice Antonin Scalia, a confirmation hearing, let alone a vote.