[2009.01.29] Republicans seeking relevance 共和党重新上路

Lexington
列克星敦

Republicans seeking relevance
共和党重新上路

Jan 29th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Can a wrecked party with a toxic brand make a difference? Mitch McConnell thinks so
一个被贴上有毒标签的破败政党还能有所作为么？米奇•麦康内尔的回应是：我看行

 

GEORGE BUSH passed on two batons last week. Barack Obama succeeded him as the most powerful man in the world. Mitch McConnell succeeded him as the most powerful man in the Republican Party. The former handover generated, reportedly, 35,000 news stories in a single day. The latter, not so many. Not only is Mr McConnell, the Senate minority leader, far less important than Mr Obama. He is also far less comfortable in the spotlight. Scan a photo of the inauguration and you can just make him out, standing a few rows back from the new president. He looks grey, owlish, bespectacled and glum. If the Republicans are looking for a jolt of inspiration and a fresh face to lead them into battle, Mr McConnell is not their man. But it would be a mistake to underestimate him.

乔治•布什上周传出了两根接力棒。巴拉克•奥巴马接替他成了世上最有权力的人，米奇•麦康内尔接替他成了共和党内最有权力的人。据说，仅在一天内，对奥巴马就职的新闻报道就有35,000条之多，相比之下，麦康内尔就不是那么受媒体青睐了。身为参议院少数派领袖的麦康内尔，不仅地位远没奥巴马重要，在镜头前的表现也远没奥巴马自如。看看就职典礼上的那张照片，就能很轻松地将他认出来–这个戴眼镜的家伙站在离新总统几排远的地方，一脸阴郁严肃。如果共和党人寻求的是令人为之一振，能领导他们奋战的新面孔，那么麦康内尔并不是合适的人选。但如果因此而低估他，那就大错特错了。

As a child, he overcame polio. In his early 40s, after a series of low-profile political jobs, he ran for the Senate from his home state of Kentucky. The incumbent Democrat, Dee Huddleston, looked tough to dislodge. But Mr McConnell ran wickedly entertaining campaign ads showing bloodhounds sniffing around Washington for his opponent, who had missed votes to give paid speeches in balmy resorts. The ads also showed the hounds chasing Mr Huddleston up a tree as he tried to run away from his record. Mr McConnell ousted him by a handful of votes.

童年时期，麦康内尔就曾战胜过小儿麻痹症。40出头时，在默默无闻地担任了一系列政治小角色后，他开始竞选家乡肯塔基州的参议员。其竞选对手–当时在任的民主党人迪•赫德尔斯顿，看起来可是个难以被扳下台的主。但是麦康内尔使了坏，他打出娱乐性竞选广告–广告中的侦探犬在华盛顿追寻赫德尔斯顿（此君由于在度假胜地进行有偿演讲而失去了许多选票）的踪迹，当赫德尔斯顿试图逃离其不光彩记录时，猎犬们把他追上了树。最终，麦肯内尔以不太大的优势将赫德尔斯顿淘汰出局。

“My original ambition as a senator was to someday be known for something other than the bloodhound commercial,” said Mr McConnell recently, after being introduced with yet another retelling of the story. But unlike most of his colleagues in the Senate, Mr McConnell has never shown a glimmer of presidential ambition. He is happiest stitching together deals in the dark-and he is good at it. When he ran for the Republican leadership in the Senate in 2006 he campaigned entirely behind the scenes, quietly collecting pledges of support and scaring off potential rivals by discreetly showing them that they had no chance.

“我当选参议员时的最初理想，就是希望有一天，人们不是因为侦探犬广告而记住我。”在近期一次受邀复述这段往事时，麦康内尔如是说。不同于参议院的大多数同僚，麦康内尔从未公开表现出自己对总统宝座哪怕是一丝的觊觎，他更乐于在幕后进行精心的谋划–这也是他非常擅长的一点。在2006年参议院共和党领袖位置之争中，麦康内尔进行的就是全程幕后竞选。他悄悄地收集那些保证支持自己的信息，同时小心翼翼地暗示潜在对手：你们是没有任何机会的–这一招吓退了不少人。

Since then, Mr McConnell has strewn the Democrats’ path with barbed wire. Under Senate rules, a minority of 41 or more (out of 100 senators) can block nearly anything. Last year, with 49 seats, Republicans slowed the lawmaking process to a shuffle. This year, with only 41 seats (and one race, in Minnesota, still not settled), Republicans can thwart Mr Obama’s agenda only if they remain perfectly united. That is always hard. So Mr McConnell talks of using a mixture of co-operation and filibuster threats to influence the way new bills are drafted. This makes a welcome contrast to Republicans in the House of Representatives who have no power to filibuster and therefore little influence. The big fuss they made this week about funding for family planning smacked of point-scoring. Mr Obama sounded like a grown-up when he conceded their point and moved on.

自从那时起，麦康内尔就使民主党的前进之路上布满了荆棘。根据参议院规定，100名参议员中，只要有41名或以上参议员提出反对，就能阻止几乎任何议案的通过。去年，凭借占据着参议院的49个席位，共和党将立法程序的进行减缓至蜗牛速度。今年，由于在参议院的席位减至仅41席（在明尼苏达州的一场竞选还未尘埃落定），共和党只有在完全团结一致的情况下才能阻挠奥巴马的议事日程，通常来说这是极其困难的。认识到这一点后，麦康内尔就提议，可以采取合作和阻挠议事威胁的混合手段来影响起草法案的进程，这个办法赢得了参议院共和党人的认可。而众议院的共和党人对此则不太感冒，因为他们在阻挠议事这方面没什么权力，也掀不起什么风浪。本周，参议院共和党人在计划生育资金问题上添的乱子有咄咄逼人的味道。当奥巴马对他们作出让步并继续按程序行事时，显示出了处事成熟的风范。

Mr McConnell says he welcomes Mr Obama’s promise of “post-partisanship”. But he is not offering to surrender. He makes no secret of his unyielding hostility to some Democratic bills, such as the oddly-named Employee Free Choice Act, which would curb the right to a secret ballot before a workplace is unionised. Mr McConnell says this would “turn America into Europe”, and predicts a big political fight over it.

麦康内尔指出，他对奥巴马”超越党派性偏见”承诺表示欢迎，但这并不意味自己会妥协。麦康内尔丝毫不掩饰自己对某些民主党法案的厌恶，比如名字听起来有些古怪的《雇员自由选择法案》（这项法案限制在工会成立前进行不记名投票的权利）。他认为这样会使美国”变成新的欧洲”，还预言会出现围绕这项法案的政治斗争。

Yet Mr McConnell’s call for bipartisanship is not a total sham. He has worked with Democrats before, not least to cobble together a bail-out of the financial sector last year. He is right that Congress will probably do a better job of tackling the economic crisis if Democrats and Republicans co-operate. He is right, too, if somewhat hypocritical, when he argues that taxpayers need a watchdog to stop interest groups from treating the stimulus bill like a second Christmas. “Everybody’s making their list and checking it twice,” he tuts-though he has a long record of gift-wrapping taxpayers’ cash for interest groups in his home state.

当然，要把麦康内尔对两党合作的呼吁说成是一场骗局，也是有失公允的。麦氏也曾与民主党人进行过通力合作，尤其是去年，他们还一起匆忙赶制了财政部门的救市方案。麦康内尔认为，国会在民共两党合作的情况下能更好地应对经济危机，这种说法是正确的。如果能再虚伪一些，那么他的另一个看法–纳税人需要监察者来阻止利益集团把财政刺激当成第二个圣诞节（指利益团体从财政刺激中牟利）–也是正确的。 “每个人都应该列出详细的清单，并且对其进行细致审查。” 麦康内尔忧虑道。但事实上，在其家乡州，他为利益集团拢取纳税人钱财的做法由来已久。

Some of his ideas are constructive. He wants a big chunk of the stimulus to come in the form of tax cuts. He wants to make federal cash for the states a loan, not a gift, so there is less chance it will be wasted. And when the immediate crisis is over, he wants both parties to sit down and work out how to curb the terrifying growth of entitlement spending (public pensions and health care). This makes sense. Since any plausible solution will hurt, neither party will take sole responsibility. Mr McConnell promises that Democrats “can expect more co-operation from Republicans than the last president received from them.”

麦康内尔的一些想法还是很有建设性的，比如：将一大部分财政刺激转化成减税的形式；联邦政府应该贷款而不是拨款给各个州，以达到减少资金浪费的目的；民共两党在经济危机结束后应共同探讨，如何遏制正以骇人速度膨胀的应享权利支出（公共养老金和医疗保险）。这些提议都很有意义。由于任何一个可能实施的计划都有其负面影响，所以两党应共同承担责任。麦康内尔作出承诺，”共和党对民主党提供的合作会比他们提供给上一届总统的更多。”

A new face for the Grand Old Party?
共和党的新面孔?

A show of reasonableness might help Republicans repair their shredded reputation. But the task is immense. The party has been walloped in the past two elections. It has negligible support among young people and ethnic minorities. And its previously cutting-edge get-out-the-vote machine looks rusty and antiquated next to Mr Obama’s. The task of rectifying all this will fall heavily on the new chairman of the Republican National Committee, who will be chosen this week.

运用理性能修复共和党破败的声誉，但这可是项浩大的工程–共和党在前两次选举中惨遭痛击；它在年轻人和少数民族选民中得到的支持微乎其微；且其曾风光一时的投票动员机制，与奥巴马的拉票机制相比起来，已经显得僵化过时。将这一切拨乱反正的重任，就落在了共和党全国委员会新主席的身上了（新主席将于本周内选出）。

The winner must be “ever-present” on television, says Jim Nicholson, who did the job in the late 1990s. The RNC chair has two main tasks besides raising money: to fire up the base and woo new voters; and the two are in tension. All six candidates say Ronald Reagan was their favourite Republican president. That thrills conservatives, but swing voters may wonder why Abraham Lincoln gets no mention. Encouragingly, two of the leading contenders are black. But one of them, Ken Blackwell, a failed gubernatorial candidate from Ohio, shows little interest in swing voters and tends to bang on about gays. The other, Michael Steele, a former lieutenant-governor of Maryland, has broader appeal. Handsome, moderate, the grandson of a sharecropper and the only candidate who doesn’t own a gun, he looks good on television even to non-Republicans. His moderation may count against him with the party faithful. But if the Republicans want to be relevant again, they need a more inclusive faith.

20世纪90年代末曾任此职的吉姆•尼科尔森表示，选举的胜出者应能”时常在电视上出现”。共和党全国委员会新主席有两项当务之急：一是点燃基地州的热情，二是吸引新选民。六位候选者都宣称，罗纳德•里根是自己最喜欢的共和党总统。这个说法让保守派人士们感到兴奋，但摇摆选民们却对一点表示疑惑–没有哪个候选者提到过亚伯拉罕•林肯。令人鼓舞的消息是，处于领先优势的两个竞选者都是黑人。但是，其中一位候选人–俄亥俄州失败的州长候选人肯•布莱德维尔，对同性恋选民的兴趣远大于摇摆选民。而另一位候选人–前马里兰州长迈克尔•斯蒂尔，对选民就拥有更强的吸引力：这个佃农的孙子英俊、温和，而且是唯一不拥有枪支的候选人，甚至连非共和党人士都认为，此君在电视上的形象很不错。斯蒂尔的温和派作风–由于与共和党的信念相悖–可能会成为其短板。但如果共和党人想要重新发挥影响的话，他们就需要一种更为包容的信念。

译者：nsyncbx             http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=16913&extra=page%3D1