The reality on the southern U.S. border was so difficult to reconcile with Americans’ vision of themselves
美國南部邊境的現(xiàn)實,美國民眾對未來的期許,二者之間已經(jīng)難以調(diào)和,
that Trump did not even make the effort.
特朗普便干脆聽之任之,不做任何補救。
The President’s first mention of the order to separate children from their parents
總統(tǒng)在5月26日的推文中首次下達(dá)了將孩子與父母分開的命令,
was a May 26 Twitter post calling it “horrible” even though he had personally authorized it.
他在推文中稱這種做法“令人震驚”,盡管下達(dá)這一命令的就是他本人。
Three weeks later, his motives were fully in the open:
三個星期后,他的動機徹底被公開了:
by driving attention to the border, his signature campaign issue,
通過將人們的注意力轉(zhuǎn)移到他在競選時著重討論的邊境問題上,
Trump aimed to force a vote on his long-promised border wall before midterm elections can undo the GOP majority in Congress.
特朗普企圖在中期選舉打破共和黨在國會的多數(shù)黨地位之前,迫使民眾就他很久以前就已經(jīng)承諾修建的邊境墻提案進(jìn)行投票。
The attention part certainly worked.
轉(zhuǎn)移注意力這招顯然已經(jīng)奏效。
A week after his return from the June 12 summit with North Korea’s dictator,
在他從6月12日與朝鮮獨裁者的峰會歸國的一周后,
family separation dominated the national conversation like no other political story since former FBI chief James Comey was shown the door.
拆散移民家庭的問題就已經(jīng)主宰了全國上下的討論,其熱烈程度,前聯(lián)邦調(diào)查局局長詹姆斯·科米被掃地出門后還沒有任何政治話題能夠與其并肩。

A steadily building wave of revulsion washed over the political spectrum,
第一夫人的女發(fā)言人說,第一夫人呼吁“用心治理國家”后,
from MSNBC to the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal to Franklin Graham and into the White House living quarters,
從微軟全國廣播公司到《華爾街日報》社論版,到富蘭克林·格雷厄姆牧師再到到白宮生活區(qū),
when a spokeswoman for the First Lady said she called for “a country that governs with heart.”
一股不斷壯大的反感浪潮席卷了整個政壇。
Which leaves us facing a question: What kind of country are we?
一個問題出現(xiàn)在了我們面前:我們是一個怎樣的國家?
The world has been nervously asking that since November 2016.
自2016年11月以來,世界一直在緊張地問這個問題。
And while Trump ultimately capitulated on the forced separation of children,
盡管特朗普最終在強制分離兒童的問題上做出了讓步,
his new order suggested that families would be detained not only together, but perhaps indefinitely.
他還是頒布了新命令,表明那些家庭不僅會一起被拘留,還可能無限期被拘留。
For many Americans, the forced separation of immigrant families left them looking into the void from which the brutal policy emerged:
移民家庭被迫分離一事也讓許多美國人看到了這一殘酷政策背后的那片空白:
the dark space left by the words Trump does say.
特朗普親口說出的話所留下的那片黑暗。
IN THE FIRST DAYS of the Trump Administration,
特朗普上任的頭幾天,
the State Department moved to drop two words—just and democratic—from the list of qualities the U.S. sought to promote beyond its borders.
國務(wù)院便已經(jīng)決定將“公正”和“民主”兩個詞從美國試圖超越國土而推廣的品質(zhì)清單中除名。
The change did not go through, but the effort signaled a retreat from idealism that is re-ordering the world.
盡管沒有完全落實,這一舉措依然標(biāo)志著放棄重塑世界秩序這一理想。
In the name of “America first,” a slogan that first surfaced to keep America out of World War II,
當(dāng)時,美國不僅是全球唯一完好無損的經(jīng)濟強國,還占據(jù)了道德制高點,
Trump is angrily sawing away at the global structures the U.S. spent decades building after prevailing in that conflict,
從那場戰(zhàn)爭中漁翁得利之后,美國花了數(shù)十年時間構(gòu)建全球秩序,
which left America not only as the globe’s only intact major economic power, but also holding the moral high ground.
特朗普卻打著“美國優(yōu)先”——這一口號原本是為了讓美國置身于二戰(zhàn)之外——的名義憤怒地砍斷了這一秩序。
Imperfect in myriad ways (lynching was still common in 1945; women had been allowed to vote for just a quarter-century),
盡管在很多方面依然不完美(1945年時,私刑在美國依然很普遍;女性獲得投票權(quán)的時間也才剛過去1/4個世紀(jì)),
the U.S. looked plenty good beside the Third Reich and Imperial Japan, and vowed to do better.
除去第三帝國以及日本帝國,那時的美國也算不錯,還發(fā)誓要變得更好。
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