2019年经济学人 约翰逊语言专栏--特朗普弹劾战中情绪化的用词(2)

 

These buzzwords have caught on all the same. Mr Trump¹’s camp recently produced a slick television advertisement featuring ordinary voters reaching into this grab-bag of comparisons, calling impeachment² a “witch hunt”, a “scam” and a “joke”. Naturally, Democrats³ want to rally their troops, too, and have duly come up with dubious⁴ slogans of their own. Rashida Tlaib, who was elected to Congress in November 2018, said her goal was to “impeach the motherfucker”. Her campaign marketed the catchphrase (bowdlerised with stars) as a t-shirt. For his part, Bill Weld, a dissident Republican, has said that Mr Trump is guilty of “treason”, reminding his audience that the penalty for that is death.

这些流行语仍然很流行。特朗普阵营最近制作了一个漂亮的电视广告，展示了普通选民在这些比较中处于，称弹劾是“政治迫害”、“骗局”和“笑话”。当然，民主党人也想集结他们的军队，并适时地提出了他们自己的可疑口号。2018年11月当选国会议员的拉希达·特莱布表示，她的目标是“弹劾这个混蛋”。 她的竞选团队将这句口号(饰有星星)宣传为一件t恤。持不同政见的共和党人比尔?维尔德则表示，特朗普犯有“叛国罪”，提醒他的听众，这种行为的惩罚是死亡。

Such is the nature of the process, however, that, as the accusers, congressional Democrats faced another, very different challenge: while pressing their political case, they also had to hone specific charges for the articles of impeachment. Two that they considered, “extortion” and “bribery⁵”, both had disadvantages. One was that they are contradictory⁶; extortion involves putting a squeeze on a victim, while bribery is more consensual. The second drawback was that both are federal crimes. Politically, if not in law (since the Senate is not a courtroom), pursuing either would have led to demands that they should be proven to the standard of a criminal prosecution⁷. Failure might have undermined the case.

然而，由于弹劾程序的性质，国会中的民主党人面临着另一个截然不同的挑战：在推动他们的政治主张的同时，他们还必须为弹劾条款提出具体的指控。他们认为“勒索”和“贿赂”这两个词都有缺点。一是它们相互矛盾；敲诈勒索包括对受害者施加压力，而贿赂则更多是双方自愿的。第二个缺点是两者都是联邦犯罪。在政治上，如果不是在法律上(因为参议院不是法庭)，追求其中任何一个都会导致要求他们被证明符合刑事起诉的标准。失败可能会破坏这个案子。

1 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。

2 impeachment   

n.弹劾；控告；怀疑

参考例句：

• Impeachment is considered a drastic measure in the United States.在美国，弹劾被视为一种非常激烈的措施。
• The verdict resulting from his impeachment destroyed his political career.他遭弹劾后得到的判决毁了他的政治生涯。

3 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》

4 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

5 bribery   

n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿

参考例句：

• FBI found out that the senator committed bribery.美国联邦调查局查明这个参议员有受贿行为。
• He was charged with bribery.他被指控受贿。

6 contradictory   

adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立

参考例句：

• The argument is internally contradictory.论据本身自相矛盾。
• What he said was self-contradictory.他讲话前后不符。

7 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。