美国国家公共电台 NPR Sen. Elizabeth Warren's Call To Action: 'This Fight' Will Take Everybody

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has been at the forefront of progressive politics over the last year. She sparred with Donald Trump¹ on Twitter. She was reprimanded by Republicans on the Senate floor earlier this year. Our co-host Audie Cornish talked to her earlier today about her new book, "This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle To Save America's Middle Class."

AUDIE CORNISH, BYLINE²: I started by asking Senator Warren about a scene she describes vividly³ in the book where she's speaking at a Hillary Clinton rally. It was last October, just before the election. And she deploys⁴ a term Donald Trump used to describe Clinton.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ELIZABETH WARREN: Get this, Donald. Nasty women are tough. Nasty women are smart, and nasty women vote.

(APPLAUSE)

WARREN: And on November 8, we nasty women are going to march our nasty feet to cast our nasty votes to get you out of our lives forever.

(APPLAUSE)

CORNISH: You write this moment as being just kind of inspiring and women side by side and the solidarity⁵. And we know later, though, that 53 percent of white women went on to vote for Donald Trump. And how have you made sense of that given your arguments against him?

WARREN: Well, I see this as a problem that is framed in a much longer arc. And it's the story I try to tell in my book, "This Fight Is Our Fight." It's about how GDP has gone up in this country from 1935 to the present day. But there was a time in America when we were investing, using that money to invest in America's middle class. And from 1935 to about 1980, that's what it was. We built a solid middle class.

And then starting in 1980 forward, what happened was that we started taking the legs out from underneath⁶ it. Ronald Reagan comes in. It's trickle-down economics. It's tax cuts for those at the top. It's less money to invest in education and infrastructure⁷ and basic research. It's turned the banks loose to do whatever they want. It's deregulate the giant corporations in this country.

And what happened was that America's middle class began to shake, began to crumble⁸. And now we're in a place where Donald Trump could deliver the knockout blow.

CORNISH: But you argue that...

WARREN: For me...

CORNISH: ...It was economic anxiety and bigotry⁹ that was his kind of one-two punch. So what's your response to that voter now who felt like they were being called bigots for voting for him?

WARREN: Well, I think the response now is that a lot of people are saying, you know, this is less about what Donald Trump said and more about what Donald Trump does.

Donald Trump has been president for less than a hundred days, and yet he assembled a team of billionaires and bankers and handed over much of the keys to government to them. He signed off on laws that make it easier for corporations that kill or maim¹⁰ their employees not to have to disclose that, make it easier for investment advisers¹¹ to cheat retirees and then capped it all off with this Trumpcare idea that he would sign onto a program that would take away health care from 24 million people, drive up costs for millions more and do all that in order to deliver more tax cuts for a handful of millionaires and billionaires. This is...

CORNISH: And you're referring to the health care bill that did not go forward in the House.

WARREN: That's right. This has just been one punch after another to working families. And so I think the question now becomes - I think the focus and what I try to talk about in this book is, what are we going to do about that? Are we going to stand by? Are we just going to let Donald Trump and these Republicans in Washington just totally turn our government over to those with money and power?

You know, the rich and the powerful have been running our government for about 35 years now. And they have really made it work great for those at the top; for everyone else, not so much so. What I argue in this book is it is time for the rest of us to fight back, all of us, and that we can do it and we can make our voices heard.

CORNISH: To that point, you write very specifically about policies, especially Republican policies that you feel have not worked for the middle class. But when you look at globalization deals like NAFTA, banking¹² deregulation laws like Glass-Steagall, they were presided over by Democrats¹³.

So what's your response to the citizen, the voter who says the Democratic Party has not held up its end of the deal to American workers?

WARREN: Well, I think - I think there's truth in that. Look, let's be blunt. Democrats have not always been on the right side of these arguments. And frankly¹⁴, Democrats have not indicated, always, a willingness to wade¹⁵ in and actually to fight for the people who need it.

CORNISH: Now, since the election, progressive voters have been trying to pull the party leftward. And I asked the senator more about that and about what lessons Warren took away from Clinton's campaign that affected¹⁶ her thinking about running for president herself.

WARREN: Well, you know, everybody's got to get out there and find the piece that they can do. That's - to me that's - that's what the Women's March signaled. You know, watching all these folks who said, wait a minute; democracy is not something I can hand over to someone else. Democracy is something I've got to do.

You know, I tell this story in the book about - I did the Women's March in in Massachusetts in Boston. And as we're turning the corner to go to the Common, you see all these people who are walking - you know, women in their pink pussy¹⁷ hats and men pushing strollers, and kids are running and people on bicycles. And I saw this little girl, and she was riding on her - on her daddy's shoulders. And she's holding up a sign. And the sign said, I fight like a girl. And I thought, me, too, sweetie. You know, she's in the fight.

And this is where our army's going to come from. Some people will run for office. Some people will help those who are running for office. Some people will be the ones who make the phone calls, show up at the rallies. But it's going to take all of us in this fight.

CORNISH: Will you be one of the people who runs for president in 2020?

WARREN: You know, I don't have any plan to do that. I'm running for the Senate in 2018 for Massachusetts. But I got to say this one more time; this is not about what happens every four years or what happens four years from now. We have to be in this fight right this minute. This is what has changed in democracy in America. It's not the case that we can simply put this off. You know, and every four years, we'll all kind of get interested in one big race and pay attention to it, or maybe every two years for congressional races or Senate races.

No. No longer can we do this. We have to be engaged, and we have to be engaged right now. I mean, between now and the end of the day. It's what Donald Trump is doing today and tomorrow and this week and next week. We've got to begin this fight now. That's why I wrote this book. That's why I call it "This Fight Is Our Fight."

CORNISH: Elizabeth Warren, Democratic senator of Massachusetts, thank you so much for speaking with us.

WARREN: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF YPPAH'S "GUMBALL MACHINE WEEKEND")

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 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

4 deploys   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的第三人称单数 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• It then deploys "decoy" programs designed to attract the virus. 然后，它释放“诱饵”去吸引病毒。
• But when that doesn't work, he deploys his secret defense mechanism. 但没有效果，它要施展绝密自卫武器了。

5 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

6 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

7 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

8 crumble   

vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁

参考例句：

• Opposition more or less crumbled away.反对势力差不多都瓦解了。
• Even if the seas go dry and rocks crumble,my will will remain firm.纵然海枯石烂，意志永不动摇。

9 bigotry   

n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等

参考例句：

• She tried to dissociate herself from the bigotry in her past.她力图使自己摆脱她以前的偏见。
• At least we can proceed in this matter without bigotry.目前这件事咱们至少可以毫无偏见地进行下去。

10 maim   

v.使残废，使不能工作，使伤残

参考例句：

• Automobile accidents maim many people each year. 汽车车祸每年使许多人残废。
• These people kill and maim innocent civilians.这些人杀死和残害无辜平民。

11 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

12 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

13 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》

14 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

15 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

16 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

17 pussy   

n.(儿语)小猫，猫咪

参考例句：

• Why can't they leave my pussy alone?为什么他们就不能离我小猫咪远一点？
• The baby was playing with his pussy.孩子正和他的猫嬉戏。