美国对专制的纵容与渴望America’s Thirst for Authoritarianism
CHARLES M. BLOW2023年12月14日
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Around the world, authoritarianism is ascendant and democracy is in decline.
在世界范围内，专制在抬头，民主在衰落。
A 2022 report from the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance found that “over the past six years, the number of countries moving toward authoritarianism is more than double the number moving toward democracy” and that nearly half of the 173 countries assessed were “experiencing declines” in at least one metric of democracy.
2022年的一份国际民主和选举援助学会报告发现，“过去六年间，转向专制的国家比转向民主的国家多出了一倍以上”，173个国家中有近一半至少有一项民主指标“出现下跌”。
The United States wasn’t impervious to this trend. The report found that America was “moderately backsliding” on its democracy.
美国也不能逃脱这股潮流。报告发现美国的民主存在“一定程度的倒退”。
But I fear that we’re now on the precipice of fully turning away from democracy and toward a full embrace of authoritarianism. The country seems thirsty for it; many Americans appear to be inviting it.
然而我担心，我们正站在完全背离民主、堕入专制的悬崖边上。这个国家似乎在渴望着专制，许多美国人在做的事将招致这样的结果。
Confidence in many of our major institutions — including schools, big business, the news media — is at or near its lowest point in the past half-century, in part because of the Donald Trump-led right-wing project to depress it. Indeed, according to a July Gallup report, Republicans’ confidence in 10 of the 16 institutions measured was lower than Democrats’. Three institutions in which Republicans’ confidence exceeded Democrats’ were the Supreme Court, organized religion and the police.
对我们的主要机构——包括学校、大企业、新闻媒体——的信心正处于或接近半个世纪以来的最低水平，这部分是因为唐纳德·特朗普主导的右翼在想方设法打压。事实上根据盖洛普在7月的一份报告，接受评估的16个机构中，共和党人对其中10个机构的信心比民主党人低。三个共和党人比民主党人更有信心的机构是最高法院、有组织宗教和警察。
And as people lose faith in these institutions — many being central to maintaining the social contract that democracies offer — they can lose faith in democracy itself. People then lose their fear of a candidate like Trump — who tried to overturn the previous presidential election and recently said that if he’s elected next time, he won’t be a dictator, “except for Day 1” — when they believe democracy is already broken.
随着人民丧失对这些机构的信念——其中许多机构对维护民主所带来的社会契约至关重要——他们会对民主本身失去信念。于是，当人们认为民主已经崩坏，他们就不再害怕特朗普这样的候选人——他曾经试图推翻之前的总统选举结果，最近又说如果他再次当选，他不会当一个独裁者，“只有第一天除外。”
In fact, some welcome the prospect of breaking it completely and starting anew with something different, possibly a version of our political system from a time when it was less democratic — before we expanded the pool of participants.
事实上有些人乐于见到它被彻底毁坏，从头开始某种新的东西，也许是在我们曾经的政治体制中选择某个不那么民主的版本——也就是在我们扩大民主的参与范围之前。
In Tim Alberta’s new book, “The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory,” he explains that many evangelical Christians have developed, in the words of the rightist Southern Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress, an “under siege” mentality that has allowed them to embrace Trump, whose decadent curriculum vitae runs counter to many of their stated values. It allows them to employ Trump as muscle in their battle against a changing America.
蒂姆·阿尔伯塔在新书《王国、权力与荣光》(The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory)中解释了许多福音派基督徒的一种“腹背受敌”心态——这是右翼的南方浸信会牧师罗伯特·杰弗里斯的话，正是这种心态促使他们欣然接纳了特朗普，尽管他那些堕落的事迹是背离许多教徒所主张的价值观的。这让他们得以将特朗普当成打手，用于抵制一个正在改变的美国。
This kind of thinking gives license — or turns a blind eye — to Trump’s authoritarian impulses.
这样的思维方式是在认可——或纵容——特朗普的专制主义冲动。
And while these authoritarian inklings may be more visible on the political right, they can also sneak in on the left.
类似的专制主义暗示主要来自政治上的右派，但也悄悄潜入到了左派中。
You could also argue that President Biden, whose approval numbers are languishing, is being punished by some because he isn’t an authoritarian and therefore isn’t able to govern by fiat: Many of his initiatives — voter protections, police reform, student loan forgiveness — were blocked by conservatives. Could he have fought harder in some of these cases? I believe so. But in the end, legislation is the province of Congress; presidents are bound by constitutional constraints.
拜登总统惨不忍睹的民调满意度可以看作是一些认为他不专制的人在惩罚他，不专制导致他不能进行严明的治理：他发起的许多行动——选民保护、警察改革、学生债务免除——被保守派封阻了。他是不是应该在其中的某些事项上更奋力地争取呢？我认为是这样。然而立法说到底是国会的职权范畴，总统是受宪法约束的。
Trump surely appeals to those who want a president who’ll simply bulldoze through that bureaucracy, or at least expresses contempt for it and is willing to threaten it.
有的人希望一个总统能把这些繁文缛节一举推翻，或至少表达他的蔑视，有形成威胁的意愿，特朗普无疑就是在迎合这类人。
Furthermore, Trump’s chances will probably be helped by the portion of the electorate misjudging the very utility of voting. There are still too many citizens who think of a vote, particularly for president, as something to throw to a person they like rather than being cast for the candidate and party more likely to advance the policies they need.
此外，选民中那些对投票的功用存在误解的人，可能也会增加特朗普的机会。至今仍有太多的国民认为，投票——尤其是选总统——就是要投给他们喜欢的人，而不是投给更有可能推进他们需要的政策的候选人和政党。
And there are too many who think that a vote should be withheld from a more preferable candidate as punishment for not delivering every single thing on their wish lists — that choosing not to vote at all is a sensible act of political protest rather than a relinquishing of control to others. Abstinence doesn’t empower; it neuters.
有太多的选民认为，一个候选人如果没能满足他们的所有心愿，即使这个人是更合适的人选，也要受到惩罚，不能投给他——而选择完全不投票，是一种明智的政治抗议，不是将控制权拱手让给其他人。但不投票是弃权，不是赋权。
If you want a democracy to thrive, the idea that voting is a choice is itself an illusion. Voting is about survival, and survival isn’t a choice. It’s an imperative. It’s an instinct.
如果你希望民主能兴盛，视投票为一个选项本身就是错误的。投票关乎生存，生存是没得选的。投票是责任，是本能。
It’s a tool one uses for self-advancement and self-preservation. It’s an instrument you use to decrease chances of harm and increase chances of betterment. It is naïve to use it solely to cosign an individual’s character; not to say that character doesn’t count — it does — but rather that its primacy is a fallacy.
投票是一个人自我提升、自我保护的手段。你用它来减少被伤害的几率，增加得到改善的几率。把它单纯当做是对某一个个人的认可，是幼稚的。这不是说人的品格不重要——当然重要——但以此为首要考量是一种谬误。
Voting isn’t just an expression of your worldview but also a manifestation of your insistence on safety and security.
投票并非只是对你的世界观的表达，还是在申明你对祥和安泰的坚持。
And to top it off, as Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California told me over the weekend, the Obama coalition that Biden will rely on in 2024 is “under a lot of stress” with the issue of the Israel-Hamas war, and that coalition can be mended by “a foreign policy that is rooted in the recognition of human rights,” which includes “taking seriously the calls for a neutral cease-fire and the end to violence.”
最后，正如加州民主党议员罗·康纳上周末对我说的，拜登在2024年将倚仗的奥巴马联盟，在以色列-哈马斯战争的问题上“面临很大的压力”，该联盟应该用“一项在弘扬人权的基础上制定的外交政策”来改善这个局面，这包括“严肃对待有关中立停火和终止暴力的呼吁”。
On Tuesday, Biden warned that Israel risks losing international support because of “indiscriminate bombing,” but he has yet to endorse a cease-fire.
周二，拜登警告以色列，“无差别的轰炸”可能会令其失去国际支持，但他还没有对停火表达正式的支持。
With Republicans beaconing authoritarianism, and without an intact Obama coalition to thwart it, our democracy hangs by a thread.
面对向往专制主义的共和党人，必须有一个洁身自好的奥巴马联盟去抑制他们，否则，我们的民主就命悬一线了。
Charles M. Blow是时报观点版面专栏作者，撰写关于国内政治、公共意见和社会正义的文章，重点关注种族平等和LGBTQ权利。欢迎在Twitter和Facebook上关注他。

翻译：杜然