时代周刊:美国的分裂(1)（在线收听）

Long Division

长期分裂

Why America's rifts are only deepening

美国的分裂为何日益严重

The car horns blared as Joe biden Took The stage just before 1 a.m.—not to proclaim victory, but to urge his supporters not to lose hope, no matter what President Donald Trump might say. "We believe we are on track to win this election," the former Vice President told the crowd in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 4. "It ain't over until every vote is counted. Keep the faith, guys."

凌晨1点左右，当拜登登上舞台，汽车喇叭随之鸣响——不是在宣告胜利，而是鼓励他的支持者无论唐纳德·特朗普总统说什么，都不要失去希望。这位前副总统于11月4日在特拉华州威尔明顿市对着人群说道：“我相信我们就快赢了！选票还没有清点完，选举还没有结束，大家千万不要放弃。”

As the new day dawned and dragged on, it increasingly looked as though Biden was right. Having flipped Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin, Biden appeared to be inching toward victory. Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina remained too close to call as of the evening of Nov. 4. Independent forecasters believed Biden was likely to eke out the requisite 270 electoral votes when all the votes were counted, over the President's noisy objections.

随着第二天的到来和拉长，拜登的话也逐渐得到了验证。在拿下密歇根、亚利桑那和威斯康辛州之后，拜登离胜利越来越近。但截至11月4日晚，宾夕法尼亚州、乔治亚州、内华达州和北卡罗来纳州仍然势均力敌，难分胜负。这时有独立预测人士认为，在所有选票清点完毕后，拜登很有可能顶住总统的强烈反对而勉强获得所需的270张选举人票。

Even with the White House nearing their grasp, Biden's supporters could be forgiven if they found it hard to keep the faith. The 2020 election did not go according to plan for the Democrats. It was a far cry from the sweeping repudiation of Trump that the polls had forecast and liberals craved. After all the outrage and activism, a projected $14 billion spent and millions more votes this time than last, Trump's term is ending the way it began: with an election once again teetering on a knife's edge, and a nation entrenched in stalemate, torn between two realities, two cultural tribes, two sets of facts.

就算白宫已经触手可及，拜登的支持者们仍会忐忑不安，这是可以理解的。因为2020年大选并没有按照民主党人的计划进行，而是与民意调查所预测的、自由派所渴望的对特朗普的彻底否定大相径庭。在所有的愤怒、激进、140亿美元的花销和比上次多出的几百张选票烟消云散之后，特朗普的任期只能以它开始时的方式结束：又一场胜负难分的选举令美国再一次深陷僵局、再一次被两种现实、两种文化群体和两种事实撕裂。

Even if he has lost, a President who trampled the rule of law for four years was on pace to collect millions more votes this time. And though they braced for a bloodbath, the congressional Republicans who enabled him instead notched gains across the board. The GOP appeared poised to retain the majority in the Senate and cut into the Democratic House majority, defying the polls and fundraising defcits. Republicans held onto states such as Florida, South Carolina, Ohio and Iowa that Democrats had hoped to flip. They cut into Democrats' margins with nonwhite voters, made gains with Latinos in South Florida and the Rio Grande Valley, and racked up huge turnout among non-college-educated white people, while halting what many conservatives feared was an inexorable slide in the suburbs.

即使他输了，这位将法治践踏了四年的总统也有望在这次选举中多获数百万张选票。他们已经准备好进行一场大血洗，支持他的国会共和党人相反也令他在各方面都有所斩获。共和党无视民意调查和筹款赤字，似乎准备保住参议院的多数席位，同时削弱民主党在众议院的多数席位。共和党人保住了佛罗里达、南卡罗来纳、俄亥俄和爱荷华等民主党人曾意图策反的州。他们在非白人选民中削减了民主党的优势，在南佛罗里达和格兰德河谷赢得了拉美裔选民的支持，在未受过大学教育的白人中获得了极多投票，同时还阻止了许多保守派所担心的郊区支持率必定下滑的趋势。