Trump called the midterm results a “tremendoussuccess.” ­Republicans clearly felt the sting anyway. In January, whenRepresentative Steve King set his career on fire by questioning how terms like“white nationalist” and “white supremacist” had ­“become ­offensive,” GOPleaders quickly condemned his comments. Their action was remarkable, given thatthey had mostly ignored the Iowa congressman’s extensive record of raciststatements and dubious associations for more than a decade; just last year, heendorsed a Canadian politician with neo-Nazi ties.

川普稱中期選舉結果是“巨大的成功”。——共和黨人顯然感到了刺痛。今年1月，當眾議員史蒂夫·金質疑“白人民族主義者”和“白人至上主義者”等詞匯如何“變得具有攻擊性”，點燃了他的政治生涯之火時，共和黨領導人迅速譴責了他的言論。他們的行動是引人注目的，因為十多年來，他們基本上忽視了愛荷華州國會議員關于種族主義言論和可疑關聯的大量記錄；就在去年，他還支持了一位與新納粹主義有聯系的加拿大政治家。

The moral authority fell to Senator Tim Scott ofSouth Carolina, the GOP’s lone black member in the Senate. “Some in our partywonder why Republicans are constantly accused of racism,” he wrote in TheWashington Post. “It is because of our silence when things like this are said.”

道德權威落在南卡羅來納州參議員蒂姆斯科特身上，他是共和黨在參議院中唯一的黑人議員。“我們黨內的一些人想知道為什么共和黨人總是被指責為種族主義，”他在《華盛頓郵報》上撰文道。“正是因為我們的沉默才說出了這樣的話。”

So diversity is the winner, right? Not so fast.

多樣性是贏家，對吧？沒有那么快。

For all the talk about the Democratic rout, therewas no clear message from the midterms. Yes, the new House is historically­female and diverse. But in eight white working-class House districts inMinnesota, Pennsylvania and Michigan, where Democrats flipped seats away fromRepublicans, the winners were all white. Haley Stevens, who worked in the Obamaadministration on rescuing the auto industry and finding jobs for laid-offworkers, took Michigan’s 11th from Republicans after half a century. But shesoon distanced herself from her progressive colleagues in February, after she wasasked about what one voter saw as the anti-Semitism of her pro-Palestinianfellow freshman classmates.

Michigan’s 11th and the other seven flippedMidwestern districts are precisely the sort of places Democrats will want toclaw back from Trump in 2020. But Democrats now must decide whether they shouldeither write off the white identifiers who hearkened to Trump’s racialmessaging, or try to win some of them over, as Obama did. Those who thinkDemocrats don’t need them look to the rapidly changing populations of stateslike Arizona, Georgia and Texas. Others see a basic math problem: As much asthe country is changing, white working-class voters will still make up nearlyhalf of the electorate in 2020. And they are concentrated in the Midwesternstates long considered key to Democratic success.

All this has led to a mostly hushed conversationamong Democrats about race and who they should nominate from a crowded anddiverse primary field. “I think it better be a white male,” said MichaelAvenatti, the fleeting White House hopeful and pugnacious lawyer for adult filmactress Stormy Daniels in an interview with Time last year. “And I don’t saythat because I want it to have to be a white male. I say that because of therealities of the situation. If the Democrats nominate anyone other than a whitemale at the top of the ticket, they’re gonna lose the election. I’d be willingto bet anything.”

Why? “It’s different when you have a white malemaking the arguments. They carry more weight,” he said. “Should they carry moreweight? Absolutely not. But do they? Yes.”

Avenatti soon bowed out of the race after adomestic violence allegation (he denied it and was not charged by prosecutors),but Senator Bernie Sanders struck a similar chord after the midterms, sayingthat voters in Florida and Georgia grew uneasy with black Democratic candidatesfor governor amid the race-baiting attacks from their GOP opponents. “There area lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who feltuncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not theywanted to vote for an African-American,” he told The Daily Beast.

譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。