美国国家公共电台 NPR--Republicans were expecting a landslide victory, but that didn't happen

Republicans were expecting a landslide¹ victory, but that didn't happen

Transcript²

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to conservative columnist³ Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Dispatch, about the Republican party's plans for 2024 after falling short on midterm promises.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Some candidates linked to former President Trump⁴ went down in flames on Tuesday. Others are struggling, as the votes are still being counted, and some Republicans have lost no time in assigning blame. Jonah Goldberg is here. He is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and a regular guest on this program. Welcome back.

JONAH GOLDBERG: Always great to be here.

INSKEEP: What is the opportunity that some Republicans may see in the disappointment from Tuesday?

GOLDBERG: The opportunity is to finally divorce itself from, essentially⁵, the cult⁶ of personality of Donald Trump. And you're seeing that happen in - well, we should be careful. There have been plenty of times where it seemed like this was the moment where Donald Trump was going to fade away, and he didn't.

INSKEEP: Roughly one a day. Yes, yes. It's true. Go on.

GOLDBERG: Yeah. So that said, the number of people and the scale of people who formerly⁷ carried more water for Trump than Gunga Din⁸, who are now feeling free to speak more openly about his negative effect on the party, is really remarkable⁹, particularly coming out of sort of the broader Murdoch-Fox News world. The New York Post is vicious on this. The Wall Street Journal is hammer and tongs¹⁰. And various Fox hosts are just basically all saying - you know, all eyes are turning to DeSantis, it feels. And that's new.

INSKEEP: I think The New York Post headline, their front-page headline, was a picture of Ron DeSantis and the word DeFuture (ph). Is that right?

GOLDBERG: That's right. And then today's cover, I believe, is Donald Trump as Humpty Dumpty fallen off a wall.

INSKEEP: Oh, OK. That's going right at it.

GOLDBERG: Yes.

INSKEEP: But I should be clear here, Mara Liasson, our national political correspondent, referred to Trump in the past as an 800-pound gorilla¹¹ who perhaps is now a 700-pound gorilla, which is still a lot of pounds.

GOLDBERG: Oh, for sure. And in part because of the terrible way primaries work or, really, the terrible existence of primaries at all, all Trump still needs is a significant plurality of votes. So it's still hard to say he couldn't win the nomination¹². It's just very easy to say he couldn't win the presidency¹³ if he got the nomination. You know, the same collective action problem that dominated the Republican primaries in 2016 still exists. It's what some game theorists call belling the cat. It is in the interest of all the mice to put a bell on the cat. It is not in the interest of any individual mouse to be the one to put the bell on the cat.

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

GOLDBERG: And so we have - you still have that problem. But the fact that the red wave actually happened in Florida and nowhere else sets up Ron DeSantis as a way to say he can deliver victory where Trump basically has only delivered defeat because the most prominently Trump-backed candidates either lost or are - look like they're going to lose and certainly - and most did quite badly. And everyone knows that that was Trump's influence. Also it's going to start to trickle¹⁴ out that one of the reasons why Republicans all vote on Election Day is because Donald Trump basically threw in the garbage pile the Republican vote-by-mail operation, which was once better than the Democrats¹⁵' not very long ago.

INSKEEP: Yeah. Yeah.

GOLDBERG: And, you know - so, like, both on policy and on issues and on framing and also just the general assumption that sounding like a jerk, sounding like - where the cruelty is the point is good politics, it's dawning on some people that that is actually a bad way to approach politics, even for Donald Trump but certainly for his imitators.

INSKEEP: Well, let's talk about the politics here briefly¹⁶ coming forward because Republicans seem likely still to capture the House with a narrow majority. They have said they want investigations¹⁷ of the Biden administration, maybe some impeachments¹⁸, maybe a lot of impeachments. Who knows? Biden was asked about that yesterday. He responded, if they want to waste their time, fine. He's going to work on what people want. Which of them has the politics right?

GOLDBERG: So this is, again, part of the problem is that - and it's just too soon to tell whether we're actually - that this stuff is going to get better. The incentive¹⁹ structure on the right is to do fan service and infotainment for the base. The incentive structure on big chunks²⁰ of the left is the same. And the base of the Republican Party is going to want to see Hunter Biden's laptop and Hunter Biden's life dissected²¹ like he was a medical specimen²² in a 19th-century medical school. And that's going to happen, or at least there's going to be a very strong effort to do that. Moreover, just neither party can get anything done if the Republicans control one branch of Congress, which looks likely. And so it's going to be gridlock for a long time. I think that Biden probably will have the politics on his side. I just don't know that he is up to exploiting them in a way that makes him a good candidate for 2024.

INSKEEP: OK. Jonah, it's always a pleasure talking with you. Thank you so much.

GOLDBERG: Thank you.

1 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

6 cult   

n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜

参考例句：

• Her books aren't bestsellers,but they have a certain cult following.她的书算不上畅销书，但有一定的崇拜者。
• The cult of sun worship is probably the most primitive one.太阳崇拜仪式或许是最为原始的一种。

7 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

8 din   

n.喧闹声，嘈杂声

参考例句：

• The bustle and din gradually faded to silence as night advanced.随着夜越来越深，喧闹声逐渐沉寂。
• They tried to make themselves heard over the din of the crowd.他们力图让自己的声音盖过人群的喧闹声。

9 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

10 tongs   

n.钳；夹子

参考例句：

• She used tongs to put some more coal on the fire.她用火钳再夹一些煤放进炉子里。
• He picked up the hot metal with a pair of tongs.他用一把钳子夹起这块热金属。

11 gorilla   

n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• I was awed by the huge gorilla.那只大猩猩使我惊惧。
• A gorilla is just a speechless animal.猩猩只不过是一种不会说话的动物。

12 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

13 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

14 trickle   

vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散

参考例句：

• The stream has thinned down to a mere trickle.这条小河变成细流了。
• The flood of cars has now slowed to a trickle.汹涌的车流现在已经变得稀稀拉拉。

15 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

17 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

18 impeachments   

n.控告( impeachment的名词复数 )；检举；弹劾；怀疑

参考例句：

• The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. 参议院独自拥有审理一切弹劾案的全权。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• Clause 6:The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. 6.所有弹劾案，只有参议院有权审理。 来自互联网

19 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

20 chunks   

厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分

参考例句：

• a tin of pineapple chunks 一罐菠萝块
• Those chunks of meat are rather large—could you chop them up a bIt'smaller? 这些肉块相当大，还能再切小一点吗？

21 dissected   

adj.切开的，分割的，（叶子）多裂的v.解剖（动物等）( dissect的过去式和过去分词 )；仔细分析或研究

参考例句：

• Her latest novel was dissected by the critics. 评论家对她最近出版的一部小说作了详细剖析。
• He dissected the plan afterward to learn why it had failed. 他事后仔细剖析那项计划以便搞清它失败的原因。 来自《简明英汉词典》

22 specimen   

n.样本，标本

参考例句：

• You'll need tweezers to hold up the specimen.你要用镊子来夹这标本。
• This specimen is richly variegated in colour.这件标本上有很多颜色。