2018.11.8纽约时报：特朗普需要一个惩罚，他得到了

For Democrats — and America — a Sigh of Relief

特朗普需要一个惩罚，他得到了

I wanted a sweeping repudiation of President Trump’s ugly politics, an undeniable statement that America is bigger than his smallness and brighter than his darkness.

我想要的，是一个对特朗普总统丑陋政治的彻底否定，我想要一个无可争辩的声明，说美国不像他那样渺小，不像他那样黑暗。

I got a vital safeguard against his worst impulses in the form of a significant Democratic majority in the House, the exact size of which wasn’t yet clear early Wednesday.

我得到的，是一个重要的防护措施，可以防止他最糟糕的冲动，那就是民主党在众议院取得显著的多数席位，其确切规模在周三早些时候尚不清楚。

I’ll take it, and I’ll let others quibble over whether it amounts to a big wave, a modest one or a slosh of something wet and reassuring. It’s enough for the time being, even if doesn’t make me feel as good about America as I’d like to or as sure about the future as I yearn to.

我可以接受，至于究竟是一个大浪，中浪，还是只是溅了一点令人宽慰的小水花，就任凭他人去评说吧。目前这已经足够了，即使它没有像我所想的那样，让我对美国感觉良好；或是像我渴望的那样，对未来充满信心。

It won’t humble Trump as thoroughly as he needs humbling. He’ll dwell on the Republicans’ success in the Senate, where they built on their majority. He’ll brag that he concentrated his own campaign-trail energy on that chamber of Congress and on those races, and he’ll be right. He’ll note — or others in his party will — that Democrats didn’t fare as well in these midterms as Republicans did two years into Barack Obama’s presidency, when they picked up 63 House seats. Now that’s a tsunami.

这不足以给特朗普造成他需要的那种程度的震慑。他会沉浸在共和党人在参议院取得多数地位这个成功之中。他会吹嘘说，他自己的竞选活动的能量集中在参议院和相关的角逐之中，那么他说的没错。他会指出——或者他的党内的其他人会指出——在中期选举中，民主党人没有像共和党人在贝拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)总统上任两年后那样取得大胜，当时共和党拿到了63个众议院席位。这可是海啸了。

He’ll find a way to feel validated and vindicated. He always does.

他总有办法让自己感觉受到认可，觉得自己是有道理的。一向如此。

And there were disappointments for Democrats, many of which should cause concern and prompt careful re-examination of their strategy going forward. High-profile progressives, including Andrew Gillum in Florida and Beto O’Rourke in Texas, didn’t fulfill the dreams that so many Democrats had for them. There may well be a lesson for 2020 in that, and I’m not confident that the party will learn it.

民主党这边也有失望的地方，其中有的令人担忧，促使他们要小心地重新审视接下来的策略。一些受瞩目的进步派人士，包括佛罗里达州的安德鲁·吉勒姆(Andrew Gillum)和德克萨斯州的贝托·欧洛克(Beto O’Rourke)，都没有实现许多民主党人寄托在他们身上的梦想。这其中的教训或许可以供2020年参考，不过我怀疑民主党不会去吸取。

I also worry that House Democrats, flush with the newfound ability to torment a president who has earned it, will go too far, and become the foils against which he thunders profitably as he reaches for a second term. There are ways to contain and expose him shy of an all-out subpoena-palooza. The answer to a freak-show presidency isn’t a carnival that leaves Americans confused about where the most blinding lights and obnoxious noise are coming from.

我还担心众议院的民主党人，他们新获得了能够折磨这位活该受折磨的总统的能力，我担心他们沉浸其中，会做得太过火，并且成为他竞选连任时的布景——而他自吹连任形势极为有利。即便不通过各种各样的传票，也有办法对他进行遏制和揭露。面对一个怪人秀般的总统任期，狂欢不是回答，它们只会令美国人感到困惑，不知道最刺目的灯光和最讨厌的噪音来自何方。

But let’s save all of that for other columns. Let’s use this one to rejoice. Trump needed a comeuppance, and the decisive swing of the House into the Democratic column was precisely that. You know what else was? The profiles of the Democrats who made that swing happen.

但是，让我们把这些内容留给其他专栏。让我们用这篇专栏文章来欢欣鼓舞。特朗普需要一个惩罚，而众议院向民主党的决定性转变，正是这样一种惩罚。你知道还有什么惩罚么？实现这一转变的民主党人们的身份构成。

Many of the candidates for the House who turned red seats blue were women. A record number of them ran for Congress this year, and it seemed likely early Wednesday morning, even before all the counting of ballots was done, that the next Congress would also contain a record number of them: more than the 107 currently there.

众议院很多取代了共和党的民主党候选人是女性。今年女性国会议员的数字创下了纪录，甚至在周三上午早些时候，所有选票计票完成之前似乎就已经是如此，下一届国会的女性议员数量也将创下纪录：超过目前的107人。

So a president who has acted and spoken with such vulgar disregard for women will deal with more female lawmakers than any of his predecessors did. That’s a measure of sweet justice.

因此，一位对女性报以粗俗不敬言辞的总统，将会和更多的女性立法者打交道。这可以说是还了一个公道。

Many of the candidates for the House who turned red seats blue were people of color. I think of Antonio Delgado in New York, whose blackness was something that Republicans dwelled on. I think of Colin Allred in Texas, who defeated a previously invincible Republican, Pete Sessions, who has been in Congress for two decades. I think of Lauren Underwood in Illinois, who was making her first bid for political office and wasn’t initially given much of a chance. She proved the naysayers wrong.

众议院很多取代了共和党的民主党候选人是有色人种。我想起纽约的安东尼奥·德尔加多(Antonio Delgado)，他的黑皮肤是共和党人的肉中刺。我想起了德克萨斯州的科林·奥尔雷德(Colin Allred)，他击败了曾经在国会20年，此前从未失败的共和党人皮特·塞申斯(Pete Sessions)。我想起伊利诺伊州的劳伦·安德伍德(Lauren Underwood)，她第一次竞选政治职位，一开始并没有获得太多机会。她证明否定者是错的。

Allred and Underwood are in their 30s, which speaks to another theme in the Democratic takeover of House: the number of young candidates behind it. Nancy Pelosi, 78, may be poised for a new stint as the Speaker of the House, but what happened among Democratic candidates throughout the country on Tuesday represented a changing of the guard and a diversifying of the ranks.

奥尔雷德和安德伍德都是30多岁，这与民主党接管众议院的另一个主题有关：其背后的年轻候选人数量。有望担任众议院议长一职的也许是78岁的南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)，但是周二全国民主党候选人的情况，代表了一次主导势力的转变，以及群体的多元化。

In a bellwether House race in Kansas, Sharice Davids defeated the Republican incumbent, Kevin Yoder. She’s 38, openly gay and will be one of the first Native American woman in Congress. The other, also elected on Tuesday, is Deb Haaland, a New Mexico Democrat.

在堪萨斯州的众议员竞选中，沙丽斯·戴维斯(Sharice Davids)击败了共和党现任议员凯文·约德(Kevin Yoder)。戴维斯38岁，是公开的同性恋者，她将成为美国历史上头两位美洲原住民女性议员之一。另一位也是在周二当选，是新墨西哥州的民主党人黛比·哈兰德(Deb Haaland)。

Ah, Kansas: Trump won the state in 2016 by more than 20 points, but on Tuesday, in the governor’s race there, Kansans rejected a far-right candidate who was a darling of the president’s — Kris Kobach — for a Democratic woman, Laura Kelly.

啊，堪萨斯：特朗普在2016年以超过20点赢下了这个州，但是周二，在那里的州长竞选中，堪萨斯拒绝了一名极右翼候选人、深得总统青睐的克里斯·科巴赫(Kris Kobach)，选择女民主党人劳拉·凯利(Laura Kelly)作州长。

She won handily, and Democrats picked up other governorships that had belonged to Republicans, for instance in Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, where Scott Walker was denied a third term. Democrats will now govern all three states — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — that handed Trump his margin of victory in the Electoral College.

她胜得很轻松，民主党人还从共和党人手中赢下了其他州长职位，例如在密歇根州、伊利诺伊州和威斯康星州，在威斯康星州，斯科特·沃尔克(Scott Walker)未能获得第三个任期。民主党现在手握密歇根州、威斯康星州和宾夕法尼亚州——正是这三个州，令特朗普在选举人团投票中险胜。

I can look at the way Trump has governed — unabashedly spreading hate, gleefully shattering norms and sowing chaos at every turn — and wonder why more didn’t go Democrats’ way on Tuesday. I can tally their possible mistakes. Too many Democrats still haven’t figured out the difference between talking to and talking down to Americans, and too many engage in a kind of oppression Olympics that turns off voters in the middle.

看着特朗普的治理方式——毫不掩饰地传播仇恨，兴高采烈地破坏规范，并一有机会就播下混乱——我想知道为什么周二没有更多人倒向民主党。我可以罗列他们可能犯的错误。太多的民主党人仍然没有弄清楚同美国人谈话与居高临下同美国人谈话之间的区别，太多的人在变着法地进行压制，让那些不左不右的选民不爽。

But on Tuesday, in House elections, Democrats prevailed among independents. They prevailed in suburbs. They prevailed in swing districts with candidates who showed plenty of prudent moderation.

但在周二的众议院选举中，民主党人在争取中间派方面占了上风。他们在郊区占了上风。他们在摇摆区占了上风，在那里，候选人表现出足够谨慎的态度。

And they prevailed despite low unemployment numbers, wage growth and an overall economic picture that most Americans find positive. It wasn’t “the economy, stupid” that drove what happened on Tuesday. It was Trump.

尽管失业率低、工资增长以及大多数美国人认为良好的整体经济形势，他们仍然占了上风。推动周二发生的事情的，不是“经济，蠢货”。而是特朗普。

He repeatedly told his supporters in the days leading up to the midterms that he was essentially on the ballot, and for once he wasn’t boasting idly. Americans weighed in on him, and if it wasn’t quite the spanking he had coming, it certainly wasn’t a hug.

在中期选举前几天，他一再告诉他的支持者，他的名字基本上也是在选票上的，而这一次，他不是信口开河。美国人对他进行了评估，其结果就算不是在打他的屁股，至少也谈不上是一次拥抱。