然并卵

#書# 2017《What Happened》7/10

雖然有失公允，不過讀完希拉里這本“總統競選自傳”，真的沒有比“然并卵”這三個字更貼切了——就像是一層一層的拔開洋蔥，到了最後，什麼都沒有，連希望的萌芽都看不到，有的只是假裝放下“Now when people ask how I’m doing, I say that, as an American, I’m more worried than ever—but as a person, I’m doing okay.”

但從閱讀感受來說，比之前幾本政治三八，文學享受上高了幾個級別，可以達到中下水平，其中有些段落和鋪陳推進，超出預期。對於我個人來說，對她的政治角色依然不喜歡，但是對於她這本書本身，我是願意給出有限度的讚賞的。

但她——或者是民主黨和白左們——依然是沒有明白當今反精英政治的底層核心訴求，還是居高臨下的上帝視角，覺得自己背負著十字架在聖城里攀爬，一副“我是為了你們好”的道德咄咄逼人。

For Trump, if everyone’s down in the mud with him, then he’s no dirtier than anyone else. He doesn’t have to do better if everyone else does worse. 我沒有興趣繼續討論顯而易見的川普問題，五十步笑百步沒有什麼意思。但對於兩個重點，一貶一褒說一下。

一：民主黨失去中下層民心，政治正確讓中產敢怒不敢言。

But in 2016 a lot of people didn’t really want to hear about plans and policies. They wanted a candidate to be as angry as they were, and they wanted someone to blame. For too many, it was primarily a resentment election. That didn’t come naturally to me. I get angry about injustice and inequality, abuse of power, lying, and bullying. But I’ve always thought it’s better for leaders to offer solutions instead of just more anger. That’s certainly what I want from my leaders. Unfortunately, when the resentment level is through the roof your answers may never get a hearing from the people you want to help most. 在炒作民粹的今天，雖然希拉里和民主黨一再提出“When they go low, we go high!" 撇開希拉里之前民主黨初選的一大堆醜聞，這是否也是否定民意？有誰又願意一直被教導，特別是被自身道德污點重重的候選人？希拉里認為她需要並且可以引導大家走出污泥，這實在過於高估自己。

Trump’s inaugural address was aimed squarely at millions of Americans who felt insecure and frustrated, even hopeless, in a changing economy and society. A lot of people were looking for someone to blame. Too many saw the world in zero-sum terms, believing that gains made by fellow Americans they viewed as “other”—people of color, immigrants, women, LGBT people, Muslims—were not earned and must be coming at someone’s expense. The economic pain and dislocation were real, and so was the psychic pain. It made for a toxic, combustible mix. 對中低層white trash的“認知”其實是正確的，但為什麼選舉政策上，依然還是死守“政治正確”的基本盤，活該農村包圍城市一點點被蠶食。

The store owner was no fool. He knew the Republicans wouldn’t do anything for him and his neighbors. But he thought the Democrats hadn’t done anything, either. “And at least the Republicans won’t do anything to us,” he said. “The Democrats want to take away my gun and make me go to a gay wedding.” 在選舉進程中，和普通人的接觸如果真的像書裡面寫的那麼深和廣泛，怎麼還如此自信選舉政策的正確性？民主黨的白左化，已經是病入膏肓，這不是一個國家大黨應該做的事情，中間偏左可以，但是全面的虛偽左化，一切政治正確，對政黨、對國家、對人民都絕對不會是好事。

Now, I’ve met a lot of open-minded, big-hearted men and women who live and work in poor, rural communities. It’s hard to fault them for wanting to shake things up politically after so many years of disappointment. But anger and resentment do run deep. As Appalachian natives such as author J. D. Vance have pointed out, a culture of grievance, victimhood, and scapegoating has taken root as traditional values of self-reliance and hard work have withered. There’s a tendency toward seeing every problem as someone else’s fault, whether it’s Obama, liberal elites in the big cities, undocumented immigrants taking jobs, minorities soaking up government assistance—or me. It’s no accident that this list sounds exactly like Trump’s campaign rhetoric. 這算不算找藉口，見仁見智，但想讓刀子切到肉的人去承認這刀是他們自己用力壓下去的？還好這群人也不會讀她這本書，不過希拉里支持者讀到這裡，會不會也覺得錯誤在他人？

Whether it’s updating policies to meet the changing conditions of America’s workers, or encouraging greater mobility, the bottom line is the same: we can’t spend all our time staving off decline. We need to create new opportunities, not just slow down the loss of old ones. Rather than keep trying to re-create the economy of the past, we should focus on making the jobs people actually have better and figure out how to create the good jobs of the future in fields such as clean energy, health care, construction, computer coding, and advanced manufacturing. Republicans will always be better at defending yesterday. Democrats have to be in the future business. 其實希拉里思路很清楚，但忠言逆耳，加上她本身就是謊言一堆的政客，沒有說服力，這一堆話說出來，簡直就是清理低端人群，讓你們早死早投胎的感覺。

One of the most important but least recognized facts in American politics is that Republicans tend to win in places where more people are pessimistic or uncertain about the future, while Democrats tend to win where people are more optimistic. 這個結果讓人深思，沒辦法趕上社會發展潮流的人，他們何去何從？選票還能夠帶來美國夢嗎？還是說只能變成洩憤的民粹牌，幾年拿出來打一次？

As the Washington Post explained in a piece titled, “It’s Time to Bust the Myth: Most Trump Voters Were Not Working Class,” nearly 60 percent of Trump supporters without a college degree were in the top half of the income distribution. That’s a polite way of saying many of these voters were worried about people of color—especially blacks, Mexicans, and Muslims—threatening their way of life. They believed that the political, economic, and cultural elites cared more about these “others” than about them. 另外必須指出的是，民主黨失去的並不僅僅是中下階層，還有“潛伏”的白人至上者——左傾過了頭，苦果還是要自己吞下去的。不過我看民主黨完全不覺得“政治正確”是個問題，這個白左大旗揮得忘了本。

二：女性的崛起

但我對於希拉里作為美國第一位女性總統候選人的積極意義，必須給出極大的肯定。

It reminds me of what Sandra Day O’Connor, who for a long time was the only woman on the Supreme Court, said when Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined her there: “The minute Justice Ginsburg came to the court, we were nine justices. It wasn’t seven and then the women. We became nine. And it was a great relief to me.” 當美國最高法院出現第二位女性法官的時候，之前唯一的女性法官的這句話，平平淡淡的，但深思后很有沉重感。

It is hard to be a woman. You must think like a man, Act like a lady, Look like a young girl, And work like a horse. I’m not jealous of my male colleagues often, but I am when it comes to how they can just shower, shave, put on a suit, and be ready to go. The few times I’ve gone out in public without makeup, it’s made the news. So I sigh and keep getting back in that chair, and dream of a future in which women in the public eye don’t need to wear makeup if they don’t want. 我對於有段時間媒體大張旗鼓三八希拉里的臉色、眼角、皺紋等等印象深刻，和大家嘲笑川普的蓬鬆西裝、金色蓬髪等等不一樣，對於希拉里，總覺得是以女性美醜端莊等等去挑剔，而對於川普則是當做笑料說完就罷了。女性，在這個男權社會，的確活得很艱難，各種各樣放大鏡無時無刻不死死盯著你。

In my experience, the balancing act women in politics have to master is challenging at every level, but it gets worse the higher you rise. If we’re too tough, we’re unlikable. If we’re too soft, we’re not cut out for the big leagues. If we work too hard, we’re neglecting our families. If we put family first, we’re not serious about the work. If we have a career but no children, there’s something wrong with us, and vice versa. If we want to compete for a higher office, we’re too ambitious. Can’t we just be happy with what we have? Can’t we leave the higher rungs on the ladder for men? For men, likability and professional success are correlated. The more successful a man is, the more people like him. With women, it’s the exact opposite. The more professionally successful we are, the less people like us. 希拉里說的是大實話，她已經爬到如此高位，但在男權社會，現實就是那麼殘酷，就是那麼不公平——越成功的女性，越不受歡迎。

As the Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writes, “It’s not your job to be likable. It’s your job to be yourself.” I’ve grown what Eleanor Roosevelt said women in politics need: a skin as thick as a rhinoceros hide. 讀到這一段的時候，哭笑不得：的確是，臉皮厚，吃四方！

Will we ever have a woman President? We will. I hope I’ll be around to vote for her—assuming I agree with her agenda. She’ll have to earn my vote based on her qualifications and ideas, just like anyone else. When that day comes, I believe that my two presidential campaigns will have helped pave the way for her. We did not win, but we made the sight of a woman nominee more familiar. We brought the possibility of a woman president closer. We helped bring into the mainstream the idea of a woman leader for our country. That’s a big deal, and everyone who played a role in making that happen should feel deeply proud. This was worth it. I will never think otherwise. This fight was worth it. 無論你喜歡希拉里與否，作為第一個美國女性總統候選人，她的歷史意義超越了選舉輸贏。在鼓勵更多女性敢於做夢，敢於爭取，敢於執行，她用自己的失敗為大家斬開了一條路。

Well-behaved women seldom make history. —Laurel Thatcher Ulrich 用Laurel這句有趣的話，總結這次閱讀——的確是的，不過我覺得把這句話裡面的women換成men也是一樣，這個混亂的世界，從來就不是規規矩矩的人可以領導的。

大家在亂世里，自求多福吧。

圖片：豆瓣