VOA慢速英语2015 为什么美国共和党人能够赢得那么多席位?

 

Why Do Republicans Win So Many Offices in the US? 为什么美国共和党人能够赢得那么多席位?

Barack Obama has won the last two presidential elections. Many Democrats² believe Hillary Clinton can win if she campaigns in 2016. Even if she does win, the presidency³ would be one of the few offices Democrats would hold. Republicans now control a large majority of America’s state and national offices -- including most of the governor’s offices, state legislatures and the US Congress.

This has happened for many reasons. One of them is white voters. Many have been leaving the Democratic Party, especially in the “Deep South.” Another is Republicans have outspent and outworked Democrats at the local and state levels.  

White voters leaving the Democratic Party

The Deep South is an area that includes Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. It also includes parts of five other states. They are Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas. In 1964, Democrats held or controlled almost all of the political offices in the Deep South. That was the same year that President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. The measure gave legal protection to minorities.

Experts believe the Civil Rights Act was the main reason for whites leaving the Democratic Party, giving control of the South to the Republicans.

In the 2014 election, Democratic Representative John Barrow of Georgia lost to Republican Rick Allen. Mr. Barrow served in Congress for 10 years. He was the last white Democrat¹ serving in the House from the Deep South.

Late last year, Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu lost in her effort to get re-elected. Republican Bill Cassidy won her Senate seat. His victory removed the only Democrat to hold statewide office in Louisiana and the last Democratic senator to represent the Deep South.

With the victories, Republicans now hold 54 of the 100-seat Senate chamber⁴ and 247 of the 435 U.S. House seats. The New York Times newspaper reported that, in the Deep South, Republicans control not only every U.S. Senate seat, but also every governor’s mansion⁵ and almost every state legislative⁶ body.

The results are not better for Democrats in other parts of the country. There are Republican governors in 31 of the 50 states, including seven of the 10 largest states. Only California, Pennsylvania and New York have Democratic governors among the 10 largest states.

Even in states where most voters are Democrats, Republicans are having success. In November, voters in three Democrat-majority states chose Republican governors. The three are Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts.

The website Real Clear Politics reports that Republicans hold the governorship and both houses of the state legislature in 24 states. Democrats have that same level of control in only seven states. Republicans also control 68 of 98 house and senate chambers⁷ at the state level. In the elections last November, Republicans gained control of 11 state legislatures that had been held by Democrats.

Republicans focus on state and local's elections

Raffi Williams is a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. He says the party worked hard to find candidates and identify issues. Republicans, he says:

“Put the focus on finding and grooming⁸ great talent and promoting them at the state level. And talking about the issues that matter to people at state and, and local levels, you know, such as lower taxes and these are things that have connected with people.”

Guy Molyneux does public opinion surveys for Democratic activist⁹ groups. He admits Republicans have outworked Democrats at the state level.

“I don’t think Democrats have in any sense ignored, you know, the gubernatorial elections or state legislative elections. But I think it’s probably a fair summary to say that the constituencies on the Democratic side have not focused as much or as well on those state races.”

Republican control of state-level offices has also given them control of “re-districting.” State and national electoral districts are created in the states. Control of this process permits Republicans to create districts whose voters are more likely to vote for Republican state legislators as well as members of the U.S. House.

For example, the new Pennsylvania 7th Congressional District includes parts of five different counties. The Republican-controlled legislature created the district with the help of a Republican governor. The shape of the district has been described as “an oil spill…road kill…or a crab¹⁰.” Critics say the district and others were drawn¹¹ to protect Republican officeholders.

The news is not all bad for Democrats. Democrats get large majorities of the votes of African-Americans and Hispanics. As the percentage of minority population grows larger than whites, Democrats hope to regain¹² control of the country’s politics. However, Guy Molyneux says Democrats know it will be very difficult to succeed without the support of white voters.

“Democrats have by no means written off the white vote. And there are reasons that we have, have to be optimistic about improving our percentages there, but, but certainly in these off-year elections and in these state legislative races we, we definitely need to do better.”

On the Republican side, Raffi Williams says the party has to reach out to minorities, something he says it has not done well in the past.

“For a while there we weren’t engaging in minority communities as much as we should have been. (But) recently we have been going to African-American, Hispanic, Asian (and) youth communities.”  

1 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

2 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》

3 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。

4 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

5 mansion   

n.大厦，大楼；宅第

参考例句：

• The old mansion was built in 1850.这座古宅建于1850年。
• The mansion has extensive grounds.这大厦四周的庭园广阔。

6 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

7 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

8 grooming   

n. 修饰, 美容，（动物）梳理毛发

参考例句：

• You should always pay attention to personal grooming. 你应随时注意个人仪容。
• We watched two apes grooming each other. 我们看两只猩猩在互相理毛。

9 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

10 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

11 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

12 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。