Three distinct things that made an echo recently:

1 - In a Generation, Minorities May Be the U.S. Majority

Ethnic and racial minorities will comprise a majority of the nation’s population in a little more than a generation, according to new Census Bureau projections, a transformation that is occurring faster than anticipated just a few years ago.

The census calculates that by 2042, Americans who identify themselves as Hispanic, black, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander will together outnumber non-Hispanic whites. Four years ago, officials had projected the shift would come in 2050. [full story]

2 - Every asshole in America knows the change is coming:

All of these articles about his boyhood in Indonesia and his life in Hawaii are geared towards showing his background is diverse, multicultural and putting that in a new light.

Save it for 2050.

It also exposes a very strong weakness for him—his roots to basic American values and culture are at best limited. I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values. [full asshole, by which I mean, full Mark Penn]

3 - But unless we (by which I mean you and I, dear reader) do something quick, that demographic inheritance check is very likely going to bounce:

Meanwhile, Russia got its house in order under the non-senile, non-alcoholic Vladimir Putin, and woke up along about 2007 to find itself the leading oil and natural gas producer in the world. Among the various consequences of this was Russia's reemergence as a new kind of world power -- an energy resource power, with the energy destiny of Europe pretty much in its hands. [...]

We could have spent the past ten years getting our own house in order -- waking up to the obsolescence of our suburban life-style, scaling back on the Happy Motoring, reconnecting our cities with world-class passenger rail, creating wealth by producing things of value (instead of resorting to financial racketeering), protecting our borders, and taking the necessary measures to defend and update our own industries. Instead, we pissed our time and resources away. Nations do make tragic errors of the collective will. The cluelessness of George Bush is nothing less than a perfect metaphor for the failure of a whole generation. The Boomers will be identified as the generation that wrecked America. [full Jim Kunstler on the implications of the Georgian conflict] [h/t James Wolcott]

Typical! They put us in charge at the precise moment it all really starts to come unglued. Better get your lead on now, colored folks, while there is still an outside chance of righting the ship. 2050 will be too late, and, moreover, the Mexicans and Central Americans will be blamed for the mess, and, by extension, blacks, gays, cities, evolution and so forth.