Like America, the Sunshine State also rises
L'essor du "Sunshine State" n'est pas sans conséquence pour les États-Unis (le titre fait réf. au roman The Sun Also Rises d' Ernest Hemingway)
Aujourd’hui, la Floride n’est plus seulement une destination touristique ou un bon plan pour retraités. Le « Sunshine state » mérite d’être scruté et analysé de près car, avec sa population extrêmement diverse, son pouvoir économique grandissant et son récent essor démographique, il est une fenêtre sur les défis auxquels l’Amérique est, et sera, confrontée.
Continental America’s southernmost state was once a peripheral destination for a few tourists and sun-seekers. Today it is crucial to the country’s future.
2. Whereas America’s population growth has slowed sharply, Florida’s has boomed. Between 2010 and 2020 the state’s population grew by
1. southernmost le plus au sud / once autrefois, avant / peripheral secondaire.
2. whereas alors que, tandis que / growth croissance / sharply nettement, fortement / to boom être en plein essor, exploser /
15%, twice the national rate. Florida has overtaken New York as America’s third-mostpopulous state (after California and Texas). Some 22m people now call it home, and another 7m people are expected to do so by 2040. From 1940 to 2020, Florida’s population increased 11-fold. It leads the country in domestic migration and, six years ago, overtook Califor
rate taux / to overtake, took, taken dépasser, devancer / populous peuplé / to expect (s’) attendre (à), prévoir / to increase augmenter / 11-fold multiplié par (ici, increased 11-fold ... a été multipliée par 11) / domestic national / nia to become the top destination for foreigners moving to America.
3. Florida has now “challenged California to be America’s cultural and demographic touchstone”, writes the historian Gary Mormino in his book “Dreams in the New Century”. The country’s political division can be spotted in images of Donald Trump brooding on his loss of the presidency in 2020 at his Mar-a-Lago golf course in Palm Beach and Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor and a presidential hopeful, railing against President Joe Biden’s covid-19 policies. foreigner étranger.
3. to challenge rivaliser avec / touchstone pierre angulaire, référence / to spot repérer, remarquer / to brood ruminer / to rail against fustiger, critiquer violemment / policy politique, mesure.
4. Most people looking at Florida see either sunshine or shadows: a tax- and regulation-light recipe for national success, or a cautionary tale of a short-termist society that has ignored longterm vulnerabilities. As the state with the longest coastline in lower continental America, Florida faces an existential threat from sealevel rise, but has failed to prepare itself for the consequences.
Late bloomer
5. Florida’s prominence is new. St Augustine on its Atlantic coast is America’s oldest permanent European settlement, dating from 1565. But Florida was long the country’s last frontier, a vast swathe of rural swampland where settlers lived in obscurity and poverty. “Florida, sir, is not worth buying,” declared John Randolph, a Virginia congressman, during a debate in 1845 about whether to admit it as America’s 27th state. For decades Mr Randolph seemed right. But it was only a century ago, in 1922, that the state passed the milestone of 1m residents. Until the second world war, Florida remained the smallest state in the South by population. 6. Technology then changed everything. Dredging and infilling turned swampland into less soggy settlements. The spread of railways, highways and commercial air travel ferried tourists south. Air-conditioning made Florida more tolerable, as did DDT,, an insecticide that waged war on mosquitoes (with far-reaching environmental damage). Conflict also played a part. During
4. shadow ombre; ici aussi sunshine or shadows tout noir ou tout blanc / tax impôt / regulation réglementation / recipe recette / cautionary tale mise en garde, exemple à ne pas suivre / coastline côte, littoral / threat menace / rise montée / to fail to ne pas réussir à.
5. prominence place de premier plan, notoriété / settlement colonie / swathe étendue / swampland terrain marécageux / settler colon / to be worth (+ ger.) valoir la peine/mériter de / decade décennie / milestone cap, stade (important) / to remain rester, demeurer.
6. dredging dragage / in-filling remblayage / to turn ici, transformer / soggy détrempé / spread propagation, développement / highway (US) autoroute / to ferry amener / to wage war on mener une guerre contre / far-reaching important, considérable / damage dommage(s) / the second world war, 2m servicemen trained at Florida’s military bases and liked what they saw; many returned in peacetime.
7. Offering warmth and low cost (Florida is one of seven states to levy no income tax), the Sunshine State is a famous magnet for retirees. Covid-19 and workfrom-home policies have increased and broadened its appeal. By opposing mask requirements and vaccine mandates and making schools stay open, Mr DeSantis has positioned Florida as what he calls the “freest state in these United States”, in contrast to Democratic-led states such as New York and California that required masks and vaccines and kept businesses and schools closed for longer.
8. More young professionals and families with flexible jobs have migrated to the state, as have some financial firms from New York. Florida was once a “carrot at the end of the life well lived, but that’s not true any more”, says Chris Sprowls, the Republican speaker of the state House of Representatives. Now “people are coming here to raise families” and work, he says. Mr Sprowls sees recent immigration as a validation of Florida’s policies. “We’re a blueprint for the country,” he claims.
9. The state is also extremely diverse, with one-fifth of its population born outside America, earning it the label of “southern Ellis Island”.
serviceman soldat / to train s’entraîner.
7. warmth chaleur / to levy prélever / income tax impôt sur le revenu / magnet aimant / retiree retraité / to broaden élargir, étendre / appeal attrait / requirement obligation / mandate obligation / to lead, led, led diriger / business entreprise.
8. firm entreprise, société / true vrai / speaker porte-parole / House of Representatives Chambre des représentants / to raise ici, élever / blueprint modèle / to claim affirmer, déclarer.
9. to earn ici, valoir / label étiquette, appellation, nom /
Even those born in America often hail from elsewhere, evident in a panoply of licence plates. As many as 39% of Floridians are from another state, against 16% of Californians and 22% of Texans. Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist in Tallahassee, the state capital, says that Florida is “not really a state” at all.
10. In most states residents share common experiences, but that is not true in Florida, he argues, since so many people import their biases, voting records and cultural affinities from elsewhere. “Other than sunshine, there’s no connective tissue that defines Florida,” says Joe Hamilton, founder of the St Pete Catalyst, an online news site.
11. The northern panhandle is the most “southern” part of Florida, with the largest black
to hail from être originaire de / licence plate plaque d'immatriculation.
10. to share partager / to argue affirmer, soutenir / bias préjugé / record historique; ici, habitude / connective tissue tissu conjonctif / founder fondateur.
11. large important, grand /
population. It resembles Alabama and Georgia, and its people’s drawl sounds southern. Central Florida is where the old state meets the new. This is farmland and cow country, but also home to fast-growing counties and to the fourth-largest city, Orlando.
12. The east and west coasts share beaches and water but have different micro-cultures. The west coast has more Midwesterners and is slower-paced than the east. The east has the Space Coast around Cape Canaveral, an industry that is mostly a low-orbiting sector with touristic appeal, as well as the Gold Coast stretching from Palm Beach to Miami.
13. Miami is a world in itself, one of the most global cities in America, with a strong Cuban
drawl accent traînant / to sound sembler, paraître, sonner / county comté.
12. pace rythme / to stretch s’étendre, aller (de... à).
13. global mondial, ici, cosmopolite / influence. It is reinventing itself as a commercial hub. Southern Florida is the engine of the state economy. The state has 67 counties, but the four that make up southern Florida contribute a third of GDP. The south has two of the four wealthiest zip codes in America (Miami Beach and Palm Beach). Yet an hour’s drive into the Everglades is Belle Glade, Florida’s poorest city, a postcard of despair.
Keep an eye on Florida
14. Florida is worth trying to understand for two big reasons. First, it is a window into the wider challenges facing America. It has a powerful seniors’ lobby but also a growing, dynamic group of minorities, including Hispanics,
hub pôle / engine moteur / to make, made, made up constituer, composer / GDP = Gross Domestic Product PIB (produit intérieur brut) / wealthy riche, prospère / zip code (US) code postal; ici, ville / yet cependant, pourtant.
14. wide ici, grand, important /
who account for more than a quarter of the population. As America ages and becomes more diverse, Florida may offer lessons for the entire country.
15. Second, Florida influences the whole country both economically and politically, especially as more people move in. Like California and Texas, Florida is already shaping the nation, with innovative policies that are copied elsewhere. After the 2020 census, Florida picked up a congressional seat and an electoral vote. It now has more than a tenth of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. And it is by far America’s largest swing state.
Oto account for représenter.
15. whole ensemble / to shape façonner / census recensement / to pick up décrocher, gagner / by far de loin / swing state État indécis, qui peut basculer dans un camp ou un autre (les "swing states" sont souvent la clé de la victoire à l'élection présidentielle).