Inside the Beltway: Census phobia: Democrats and ‘the question’

NEWS AND OPINION:

Lawsuits and Democratic protests are percolating over the addition of a simple citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. census — with critics claiming the question would suppress response rates and skew accuracy, or have political ramifications for states with heavy immigrant populations like New York or California.

The question is a “Trump ploy” said the Democratic Party.

“The addition of the question on citizenship to the 2020 Census form is apparently the latest way the Trump administration attempts to intimidate and threaten communities of color and the immigrant community,” said Common Cause, a grass-roots group.

Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh has a different take on the reasons left-leaning folk object to the question, which has appeared in previous versions of the national census.

“They don’t want you to know how many illegals are actually in the country. Have you ever wondered why in the early 2000s the number was 20 million illegals? Because it was. You could look it up. That was the number we would bandy about daily when talking about amnesty. Then one day all of a sudden it became 12 million. And nobody ever said why. Nobody ever explained what happened to the 8 million. Well, it isn’t 12 million. It’s at least 20, and it may be 30 million, and they do not want that discovered, either,” Mr. Limbaugh told his audience.

“If these average, ordinary Americans who can be successfully heartstring-tugged into believing that illegal immigration and amnesty is just about compassion — if they learn there are 25 to 30 million illegals here — that will change the calculus overnight,” Mr. Limbaugh said.

Democrats and progressives, he reasons, will then have to keep their vows of compassion and see to the economic, social and medical needs of illegal immigrants. No easy task. Then they must mask their interest in the potential voting bloc that such a vast demographic might provide in November, and again in 2020.

PRACTICAL EVENT OF NOTE

The Heritage Foundation features a program titled “How to Think Like a Terrorist” on Thursday, noting that Sun Tzu’s advice in “The Art of War” remains as true today as when he first wrote it 2,500 years ago: “Know yourself; know your enemy; in a hundred battles you will never be defeated.”

On hand with the how-to: Karl Walling, a professor at the U.S. Naval War College. The event will be hosted by David Azerrad, director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics and a fellow of the AWC Family Foundation fellow. The one-hour event starts at noon EST; C-SPAN will air it live, while the host organization offers a live stream at Heritage.org.

MR. TRUMP’S NEW ATTORNEY

Behold, a straightforward comment from Atlanta-based criminal attorney Andrew J. Ekonomou, who joined President Trump’s personal legal defense team last year but has since assumed a bigger role following the recent departure of John Dowd, a prominent member of the legal team.

The news media has been marveling over the fact that Mr. Ekonomou, 69, has four decades of experience in complex legal matters and has a doctoral degree in Byzantine history. His approach to Mr. Trump’s situation is not Byzantine, however.

“I’ve been tested plenty of times. Just because you’re not a Beltway lawyer doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re doing,” Mr. Ekonomou tells Reuters.

ROSEANNE’S VICTORY

The prime-time debut of “Roseanne” was a hit Tuesday, garnering 18.2 million viewers — the highest-rated comedy on any network in four years, according to ABC. The news media offered an enthusiastic response to the reboot of Roseanne Barr’s classic sitcom, which debuted in 1988 during the Reagan presidency and ran for nine seasons.

“Roseanne revival wins huge ratings,” said The New York Times, while Vanity Fair said the new show “completely smashed all ratings expectations.” The production — which included positive dialogue about President Trump and his administration — also won praise from Deadline Hollywood, CNN, USA Today and Variety, to name a few news organizations.

“Roseanne has the last laugh,” AdWeek noted.

Miss Barr, who had considerable input to the show’s scripts, credited her viewers with the victory.

“I am so grateful to the fans of the ’Roseanne’ show for giving it a good premiere rating. You are all wonderful — here is to making America laugh & talk again! LOVE U,” Miss Barr tweeted to her half-million followers.

NOT SO MANY ’STUDENTS’

There are conflicting claims about how many people actually attended the recent March for Our Lives anti-gun violence rally in the nation’s capital. Some researchers claimed 200,000 people showed up, while organizers said the number topped 850,000. Now comes news about the makeup of that crowd: An academic source suggests the event was not a “student” march at all.

University of Maryland sociology professor Dana R. Fisher and a six-person research team attended the rally, seeking to determine the demographics of the crowd — part of an ongoing Protest Project study that parses the motivations, age range and other particulars of people who participate in large-scale protests.

“Based on our sample of 256 participants that was collected from throughout the crowd, there are some very notable findings: Although the march was called by the Parkland students, most of the crowd was adults (only 9.7 percent of the crowd was under 18) and the average age of the adults participating was higher than at any other event that I have studied since the resistance began after Donald Trump’s inauguration,” Ms. Fisher reported in a brief Monday.

“The march turned out a lot of new people to protest: 27 percent of march participants were completely new to protest. The march turned out a lot of political moderates: 16 percent identified as politically moderate,” the professor said. “Overall, these findings suggest that free music and young people helped expand the tent at this event. The question that remains is whether these people will stay involved in the issue of gun control and become active members of the resistance.”

POLL DU JOUR

• 84 percent of U.S. teachers say they are satisfied with their overall experience in their profession.

• 78 percent say they have not considered leaving their profession due to concerns about school safety.

• 75 percent say they would still enter the teaching profession if they “had it to do all over again.”

• 14 percent say they are “not too satisfied” with their experiences as educators; 2 percent say they are “not at all satisfied” with their experience.

Source: A Gallup poll of 497 U.S. teachers conducted March 5-17 and released Wednesday.

• Kindly follow Jennifer Harper on Twitter @HarperBulletin