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How Donald Trump Played the (White) Race Card and Reshaped the Democratic Party
唐纳德·特朗普是如何打出(白人)种族牌并重塑民主党的
BY NINA BURLEIGH
作者：尼娜·伯利
“Today, we started a big, beautiful wall.” It was mid-February, and President Donald Trump was crowing at his first MAGA rally of 2019. There was no new wall, of course, and everyone in the border town of El Paso, Texas, could see that. But in the sea of red hats at the County Coliseum, the line was met with roars of approval. What mattered was that the president was owning the libs, undeterred several weeks after provoking, then caving over, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
“今天，我们开始建造一堵高大好看的墙。” 当时是2月中旬，唐纳德·特朗普总统在2019年首次“让美国再次伟大”集会上欢呼。当然，这里没有新修的围墙，德克萨斯州边境小镇埃尔帕索的每个人都能看到这一点。但在县体育馆的红帽子海洋中，排队的人却阵阵喝彩。重要的是，总统拥有这些运动，在引发美国历史上最长的政府关门事件、随后又屈服几周后，总统仍未被吓倒。
Before Trump rolled into town, El Paso’s sheriff was telling anyone who would listen that El Paso “was a safe city long before any wall was built.” Republican Mayor Dee Margo similarly denounced Trump’s claims during his State of the Union address that El Paso was riddled with crime until it put a barrier in place. Media outlets like the Associated Press published stats: El Paso’s murder rate was already less than half the national average in 2005, a year before the city’s border fence with Mexico went up, and for almost a decade before, El Paso was rated one of the three safest major cities.
在特朗普进入小镇之前，埃尔帕索的治安官告诉所有愿意听他讲话的人，埃尔帕索“在修建任何高墙之前很久就是一座安全的城市”。共和党市长迪·马戈也谴责了特朗普在国情咨文中所称的埃尔帕索在设置墙障之前犯罪事件很多。美联社等媒体发布了统计数据：2005年，埃尔帕索市的谋杀率已经不到全国平均水平的一半，而一年后，该市与墨西哥的边境围栏才开始修建。在此之前的近12年里，埃尔帕索一直被评为三大最安全的主要城市之一。
But the crowd was there to hear Trump’s version. “Murders! Murders! Murders! Killings! Murders!” the president shouted, before turning on El Paso’s leaders. “They’re full of crap when they say it hasn’t made a big difference,” the president told the crowd. “Thanks to a powerful border wall in El Paso, Texas, it’s one of America’s safest cities now.”
但人群是来听特朗普的说法的。“谋杀!谋杀!谋杀!杀戮!谋杀!”总统在攻击埃尔帕索的领导人时喊道。“他们满口胡言，说这没什么大不了的，”总统这样对观众讲。“由于德克萨斯州埃尔帕索的一堵强大的边境墙，它现在是美国最安全的城市之一。”
The wall has always been pure Trump shtick. And, as the president heads into the second half of his term, the American public seems to be tiring of it. Border states are split over the topic. The government shutdown slammed Trump’s approval ratings and squeezed his beleaguered party in Congress almost to the breaking point. Still, Trump gave up only as one major international airport was closing terminals and Federal Aviation Administration unions and airlines warned of imminent safety concerns. And when he pushed ahead with a national emergency declaration to fund his concrete or steel-slatted barrier, less than 40 percent of Americans supported him, according to multiple polls.
这堵墙一直是特朗普的招牌。而且，随着总统进入半任期，美国公众似乎对此感到厌倦。边境各州在这个问题上存在分歧。政府的关闭打击了川普的支持率，并将他在国会陷入困境的政党逼到了崩溃的边缘。不过，特朗普只是在一个主要国际机场关闭航站楼、美国联邦航空管理局的工会和航空公司发出安全担忧迫在眉睫的警告时才放弃。多项民调显示，当他推动一项全国紧急状态宣言，为他修建的混凝土或钢筋板条屏障提供资金时，只有不到40%的美国人支持他。
But as with all things Trump, there is some method to the madness: The wall is not so much about policy and security as it is about politics and symbolism. Started by his campaign advisers as a rhetorical device to keep the notoriously off-script Trump on task, the wall elicited cheers, then rapture among conservative crowds: “Build! The! Wall!” There would, of course, be other plans: Ban Muslims, deport “bad hombres” and restore “law and order.” But nothing beat the wall, which served as not only a singular campaign promise in Trump’s self-described “war on illegal immigration,” but also the physical embodiment of the identity politics that defined his bid from the outset.
但就像特朗普做的所有事情一样，这种疯狂也有它的道理：与其说这堵墙关乎政策和安全，不如说它关乎政治和象征意义。这堵墙由他的竞选顾问们发起，是一种夸张手段，目的是让出了名的不落俗套的特朗普继续工作。然后是保守派人群的狂喜：“筑！墙！”当然，还有其他计划：禁止穆斯林，驱逐“坏家伙”，恢复“法律和秩序”。 但没有什么能打败这堵墙，它不仅在特朗普自称的“反非法移民战争”中充当了一个独特的竞选承诺，同时也体现了他的竞选从一开始就由身份政治决定。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
