The Wingers' Nightmare

2026:

On Oct. 17, a Hispanic woman, living somewhere in Los Angeles, will give birth to a baby boy. It will be a landmark moment. The arrival of her son will make the population of the United States hit 300 million for the first time.

Or so predicts William H. Frey, an internationally regarded demographer from the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"It is a little speculative," he said, laughing

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Looking to 2026, Frey imagines a country that is even more diverse -- where many more people are bilingual and more road signs and products are labeled in English and Spanish. He imagines a country split by age, with older and younger states driven by different political interests.

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What will change going forward? In 10 years, minorities are expected to make up nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population, Frey says. Ten years after that, they will have a plethora of high-profile positions as members of Congress, judges and business leaders, he predicts.

Some will have moved from the melting-pot areas to growing states such as Nevada and Arizona. But other places -- such as the Midwest -- will remain largely white, he says. There, baby boomers will stay settled while younger residents move away. This will lift the age of the population and shift the political landscape.

Retired, but still active, they will revisit the techniques they used in the 1960s when they fought passionately for civil rights and equality for women, Frey maintains, but their cause will have shifted. "There may be some '60s radicalism among the baby boomers, but this time it will be for medical care," he says.

Maybe the xenophobes (including the so-called "Minutemen") ought to get a clue and emigrate now.


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