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In an era of institutional rot, cranks can be hard to tell from heroes.
在一個政府腐敗的時代，怪人很難與英雄區分開來。
By Nitsuh Abebe
文/尼蘇·阿比比
If you've ever attended an open meeting regarding any function of your local government,
如果你曾經參加過某個地方政府職能的公開會議，
you'll understand how crucial it is to American democracy that ordinary citizens not be expected to represent themselves with the vocabulary of lawyers or the poise of politicians.
你就會明白，普通公民不會用律師的詞匯或政客的風度來代表自己，這對美國民主是十分重要的。
Still: Of the many Michiganders the Trump campaign trotted before state legislators early this month to air dubious allegations of electoral fraud,
盡管如此，本月初，在特朗普陣營中的許多密歇根人在州議員面前小跑，對選舉舞弊提出可疑的指控，
some worked hard to convey a sense of real gravity and sobriety.
其中的一些人努力表達出他們的嚴肅與清醒。
The actual content of their testimony may have been, by turns, witless, pointless and bizarre -
他們證詞的實際內容可能是愚蠢、毫無意義和離奇的——
for the most part, they failed to understand mundane features of election law and thus considered them suspicious -
大多數情況下，他們不了解選舉法的世俗特征，因此認為這些特征是可疑的——
but there was, surprisingly often, a real attempt made to dress nonsense in a presentable suit.
但令人驚訝的是，經常有人試圖穿上一套像樣的衣服。
The one among them who found real notoriety wasn't the most polished, though, or even the most comical.
不過，他們當中發現其真正臭名昭著的人并不是最光鮮的，甚至不是最滑稽的。
Mellissa Carone, who had worked in I.T. support for Dominion Voting Systems - a company that provided election technology to most Michigan counties -
梅麗莎·卡隆曾在多明尼恩投票系統的IT部門工作，這家公司為密歇根州大多數縣提供選舉技術支持——
waxed wild and impertinent as soon as lawmakers started asking her questions, flinging claims of every kind of fraud imaginable.
當立法者們開始向她提問時，她就變得狂野無禮，對任何可以想象到的欺詐行為都不屑一顧。
Even when a Republican legislator tried, gently, to steer her toward some sort of evaluable assertion,
甚至當一位共和黨議員試圖溫和地引導她做出某種可以評價的論斷時，
she had none of it, shooting darts with her eyebrows and insinuating that he himself might be part of a cover-up.
她根本不買賬，挑起眉毛，暗示他可能在掩飾。
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