特朗普挑戰美國核心價值觀
Has Donald Trump finally gone too far? So many people have asserted this so often in the past, with so little ensuing decline in his popularity, that the claim would seem to lack any hope of plausibility.
唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)是不是終於做得太過火了？過去那麼多人經常主張這一點，卻幾乎不會導致他的人氣出現些許下滑，以至於這種主張似乎沒有希望取信於人。
Yet there is reason to believe that Mr Trump really has gone too far and that this time even he realises it.
不過，現在有理由相信特朗普確實太出格了，並且這一次他也認識到了。
Future historians may trace his demise to the 12-minute tirade he delivered at a campaign rally in San Diego. That happens to be where a class-action lawsuit by unhappy graduates of the now-defunct Trump University is being heard. Mr Trump accused Gonzalo Curiel, the judge presiding over the litigation, of being “a hater of Donald Trump”, noting that the judge “happens to be, we believe, Mexican”. Mr Trump went on to describe the case as a “scam”, the federal court as a “rigged system”, and Judge Curiel as “totally biased” and a “total disgrace”. Challenged to explain himself later, Mr Trump responded, “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest.”
未來的歷史學家在研究特朗普的失敗時或許會追溯到他在聖地亞哥競選集會上發表的爲時12分鐘的長篇大論。現已關張的特朗普大學(Trump University)不滿的畢業生髮起的集體訴訟恰好在該地審理。特朗普指責審理此案的法官貢薩洛•庫列爾(Gonzalo Curiel)是“唐納德•特朗普的仇恨者”，並指出這名法官“恰好是墨西哥裔”。特朗普進一步形容該案是一場“騙局”，聯邦法庭是“人爲操縱的系統”，庫列爾法官“充滿偏見”、完全是“恥辱”。後來特朗普被要求進行解釋，他迴應稱，“我想要建造一面牆。這是固有的利益衝突。”
The response inside the Republican party has resembled what happens when you turn the lights on in a kitchen infested with cockroaches. Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, who finally endorsed Mr Trump just after his San Diego diatribe, called the remarks “the textbook definition of a racist comment”. Mark Kirk, the Republican senator from Illinois, withdrew his previous endorsement. Even Newt Gingrich, one of Mr Trump’s most enthusiastic sycophants, called the remarks “inexcusable”.
共和黨內部的迴應就像是，當你打開廚房燈時發現到處都是蟑螂。就在特朗普在聖地亞哥出言不遜後終於支持他的衆議院議長保羅•瑞安(Paul Ryan)稱，這些評論就是“教科書中定義的種族主義言論”。伊利諾伊州共和黨參議員馬克•柯克(Mark Kirk)收回了此前對特朗普的支持。甚至作爲特朗普最熱情的奉承者之一的紐特•金裏奇(Newt Gingrich)也稱該言論“不可原諒”。
All of which raises the question: why are they finally noticing his blatant prejudice now? Mr Trump has made more obviously racist comments about Mexicans, describing them as rapists and drug dealers. He has mocked the disabled and called his female critics dogs and fat pigs. He has claimed that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and faked his birth certificate. Far from being his worst, his comments about Judge Curiel were merely typical.
這一切引發了一個問題：他們爲何現在才注意到特朗普“公然的偏見”？特朗普針對墨西哥裔發表過很多明顯具有種族主義色彩的評論，形容他們是強姦犯和毒販。他嘲諷過殘疾人，把批評他的女性稱爲狗和肥豬。他聲稱，巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)在肯尼亞出生並僞造了自己的出生證明。他對庫列爾法官的評論僅僅是典型而已，遠未達到登峯造極的水平。
But in another way Mr Trump did break new ground in challenging core American values and showing contempt for his fervent supporters. The most important ideal Mr Trump traduced in his diatribe was assimilation. Anger about illegal immigration is one thing. Denying that people born and raised in the US are fully fledged Americans is something else entirely. Mr Curiel’s father worked in the steel mills of northern Indiana to put two sons through law school. A third son went to Vietnam, where Mr Trump avoided service. As a federal prosecutor, Mr Curiel had to live under armed protection, after he was threatened with assassination by a Tijuana drug cartel. His is the kind of story of patriotism and struggle with which Americans of every ethnicity identify.
但是，在另一方面，特朗普在挑戰美國核心價值觀和蔑視其狂熱支持者方面確實開闢了新天地。在特朗普的謾罵中，他中傷的最重要的理想是同化。對非法移民的憤怒是一回事。否認在美國出生和長大的人是十足的美國人，完全是另外一回事。庫列爾法官的父親過去在印第安納州北部的鍊鋼廠工作，把兩個兒子送入了法學院。他第三個兒子去了越南，正是特朗普逃避服兵役的地方。作爲一名聯邦檢察官，在遭到提華納(Tijuana)一個販毒集團的暗殺威脅後，庫列爾不得不生活在武裝保護之下。他的經歷可以譜寫一則美國所有族裔都認同的關於愛國與奮鬥的故事。
A second national premise Mr Trump violated is respect for the rule of law. Politicians stray into treacherous territory when they insult the courts. To attribute legal outcomes one dislikes to political bias — or, as Mr Trump asserted, personal animus and corruption — corrodes trust in the judicial system. For him to make this kind of charge in a case that threatens him financially demonstrates the way in which he thinks American justice is for sale.
特朗普違背的第二個國家原則是尊重法治。當政客侮辱法庭，他們便陷入了危險的境地。把個人不喜歡的法律結果歸因於政治偏見——或者，如特朗普所堅稱的，個人恩怨和腐敗問題——侵蝕了公衆對司法體系的信任。特朗普在這樣一起從經濟上對他構成威脅的案件中作出此類指控，表明他認爲美國司法是可以買賣的。
Of course, this assumption reflects Mr Trump’s past success intimidating his enemies with lawsuits and using his wealth to cultivate friends in high places. Florida’s attorney-general considered joining a separate, multi-state fraud suit against Trump University in 2013. She reportedly decided not to do so shortly after he sent a $25,000 contribution to her re-election campaign.
當然，這種假設反映出特朗普過去成功地以訴訟威脅對手、利用財富結交身居高位的朋友的行爲。2013年，佛羅里達州總檢察長曾考慮介入一起針對特朗普大學的獨立、跨州的欺詐訴訟。據報道，在特朗普向她的連任競選捐出2.5萬美元后不久，她便改變了主意。
The third and final line Mr Trump has crossed is around financial predation. He has cast himself as a tribune for the economically vulnerable. But Trump University was a flimflam designed to separate the credulous from their borrowed cash. The gullible enrollees were in the mould of Mr Trump’s supporters: displaced, desperate for assistance and too trusting of a flamboyant huckster they had seen on television. For prices as high as $35,000 for the “Gold Elite” programme, aspirants were told they could become wealthy real estate investors like Mr Trump. A businessman who launches a venture of this type clearly does not hold his customers in high regard.
特朗普越過的第三條、也是最後一條紅線是圍繞金融掠奪的。他把自己描述爲經濟狀況欠佳者的保護者。但是特朗普大學就是一個旨在讓那些輕信者失去借來的錢的騙局。那些易受騙的入學者與特朗普的支持者極其相似：無家可歸、迫切渴望幫助、太信任他們在電視裏看到的那些花言巧語的宣傳者。對於“黃金精英”(Gold Elite)項目高達3.5萬美元的價格來說，這些有抱負的人被告知他們可以成爲像特朗普一樣富有的房地產投資者。創立此類項目的商人對其客戶明顯沒那麼重視。
This week Mr Trump issued a rambling statement claiming that his comments had been “misconstrued” and read an unusually subdued speech from a teleprompter after the primaries in New Jersey and California. But the suspicion grows that he is doing something other than running to win. Mr Trump’s campaign operation remains an understaffed, underfunded, feuding mess. By appearing in San Diego, he was wasting time in a state where Latinos outnumber whites, and which he cannot possibly win. In the same spirit of futility, he has laid the groundwork to contest New York, which has not gone to a Republican since Ronald Reagan.
日前，特朗普發表了一則漫無邊際的聲明稱他的言論被“誤解”了，並在新澤西和加州黨內初選後看着提詞器唸了一篇異常溫和的演講稿。但是，人們愈發猜測，他不會勝選。特朗普的競選運作仍然人手不足、資金不足、爭執不休、一片混亂。現身聖地亞哥的他，是在這個拉丁裔人口超過白人的州（也是他不可能拿下的州）浪費時間。同樣徒勞無功的是，他還爲競逐紐約州做了準備工作。自從羅納德•里根(Ronald Reagan)以後，共和黨從未拿下過紐約州。
Nothing he is doing makes any sense for his party. The buyer’s remorse that afflicts enrollees in Trump University is now infecting his more prominent Republican apologists. They know they were gulled and want their money back.
他的所作所爲對共和黨來說沒有任何意義。折磨那些特朗普大學入學者的“買家懊悔”(buyer’s remorse)，如今正在那些爲特朗普辯護、更加顯赫的共和黨人中間蔓延。他們知道自己受騙了，想把錢要回來。
