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How Donald Trump Played the (White) Race Card and Reshaped the Democratic Party
唐納德·特朗普是如何打出(白人)種族牌并重塑民主黨的
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，我們開始建造一堵高大好看的墻?！?當時是2月中旬，唐納德·特朗普總統在2019年首次“讓美國再次偉大”集會上歡呼。當然，這里沒有新修的圍墻，德克薩斯州邊境小鎮埃爾帕索的每個人都能看到這一點。但在縣體育館的紅帽子海洋中，排隊的人卻陣陣喝彩。重要的是，總統擁有這些運動，在引發美國歷史上最長的政府關門事件、隨后又屈服幾周后，總統仍未被嚇倒。
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.
在特朗普進入小鎮之前，埃爾帕索的治安官告訴所有愿意聽他講話的人，埃爾帕索“在修建任何高墻之前很久就是一座安全的城市”。共和黨市長迪·馬戈也譴責了特朗普在國情咨文中所稱的埃爾帕索在設置墻障之前犯罪事件很多。美聯社等媒體發布了統計數據：2005年，埃爾帕索市的謀殺率已經不到全國平均水平的一半，而一年后，該市與墨西哥的邊境圍欄才開始修建。在此之前的近12年里，埃爾帕索一直被評為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.”
但人群是來聽特朗普的說法的?！爸\殺!謀殺!謀殺!殺戮!謀殺!”總統在攻擊埃爾帕索的領導人時喊道?！八麄儩M口胡言，說這沒什么大不了的，”總統這樣對觀眾講?！坝捎诘驴怂_斯州埃爾帕索的一堵強大的邊境墻，它現在是美國最安全的城市之一?！?/div>
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.
這堵墻一直是特朗普的招牌。而且，隨著總統進入半任期，美國公眾似乎對此感到厭倦。邊境各州在這個問題上存在分歧。政府的關閉打擊了川普的支持率，并將他在國會陷入困境的政黨逼到了崩潰的邊緣。不過，特朗普只是在一個主要國際機場關閉航站樓、美國聯邦航空管理局的工會和航空公司發出安全擔憂迫在眉睫的警告時才放棄。多項民調顯示，當他推動一項全國緊急狀態宣言，為他修建的混凝土或鋼筋板條屏障提供資金時，只有不到40%的美國人支持他。
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樣，這種瘋狂也有它的道理：與其說這堵墻關乎政策和安全，不如說它關乎政治和象征意義。這堵墻由他的競選顧問們發起，是一種夸張手段，目的是讓出了名的不落俗套的特朗普繼續工作。然后是保守派人群的狂喜：“筑！墻！”當然，還有其他計劃：禁止穆斯林，驅逐“壞家伙”，恢復“法律和秩序”。 但沒有什么能打敗這堵墻，它不僅在特朗普自稱的“反非法移民戰爭”中充當了一個獨特的競選承諾，同時也體現了他的競選從一開始就由身份政治決定。
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