評論
打印
Welcome again on this election eve 2008 to the geography of US presidential elections. Thank you for coming
歡迎在2008的大選之夜來繼續我們美國總統大選地理學的課程，感謝在座各位的到來
and thanks as well to those who may be listening to this lecture on Itunes University
同時也感謝那些通過Itunes U收看這門課的觀眾
What I want to do today is very quickly go through recent presidential election history
今天我想快速地帶你們瀏覽一遍近幾次大選的選情
so that we can have time to focus on the 2004 election
剩下的時間用來著重講04年的大選
It really get down in some details county level analysis for a number of different states
深入分析各州較為細微的統計數據
The overall point I want to make for this historical section is that the Democratic party faced a real challenge
總結來說，在這段時期的大選中民主黨面臨著嚴峻的挑戰
A geographical challenge after the disaster election for the Democrats in 1972
民主黨在1972年災難性的大選后失去了其地理陣地
When they were reduced to Massachusetts and the District of Columbia
那場大選中，民主黨僅贏得了馬薩諸塞和哥倫比亞特區
If you remember before 1964, it's in this great transition or transformation that had been heated up previously
你也許還記得在1964年前，民主黨在南方的勢力就向著共和黨逐漸過渡
but came in full swing in 1964, when the Democrats lost the Deep South entirely and the Republicans gained it
直到在64年的大選中民主黨完全失去了南方這個堅固的大本營，相反，共和黨在南方得勢
so here is the Democratic Party which had relied so heavily on a solid base in the south, now has lost that geographical region
南方曾經是民主黨大選中依賴至深的堅固陣地，而今對這個地理區域完全失守
and at the same time the Democrats were facing another problem with the declining cities
同時，民主黨人還面臨著城市衰落所帶來的問題
the industrial cities of the North-east and Mid-west which had been another geographical strength for the Democratic Party
東北部和中西部的工業城市也曾在地理上充當民主黨的堅固票倉
Cities were beginning to decline, suburbs were growing rapidly
但此時城市初現衰落跡象郊區迅速興起
and the suburbs were the area where the Republicans had the greater strength
而在城郊區域，共和黨恰好把握著更大優勢
and even mining areas were in decline as mining was mechanized
傳統礦區受到機械化的沖擊也開始沒落
so the question becomes how are the Democrats going to address this crisis
因此民主黨的問題是如何度過這次危機
