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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Text A The President as Corporate1 Salesman
The president of the United States, we learn in school, plays many roles: chief executive, commander-in-chief, chief legislator, head of state, and party leader. Seldom mentioned is this role as guardian2 and representative of corporate America.
Presidents do their share to make the public accept the corporate business ideology3. Every modern president has had occasion to praise the "free-market system" and denounce collectivist alternatives. Presidents are solid believers of a market-driven economy. They boost the virtues4 of self-reliant competition and private initiative, virtues that exist more clearly in their minds than in the actual practices of the business community.
The president is the top salesman of the system. They would have us believe that our social problems and economic difficulties can be solved with enough "vigor5" and "resolve," or through "self-reliance" or a "spiritual revival," as various White House occupants from Kennedy to Clinton have put it.
"America is number one," declared President Nixon, while millions of his unemployed6 compatriots were feeling less than that. "America is standing7 tall. America is the greatest," exulted8 President Reagan to a nation with sixty million citizens living below or close to the poverty level, a record trade deficit9, and a runaway10 national debt. Prosperity, our presidents tell us, is here or not far off — but so are the nation's many wild-eyed enemies, be they communists, revolutionaries, or terrorists. Presidents usually downplay crises relating to the economy and emphasize the ones needed to justify11 U.S. interventionism abroad, huge military budgets, and curbs12 on political dissent13.
Whether Democrat14 or Republican, liberal or conservative, the president tends to treat capitalist interests as synonymous with the nation's well-being15. Presidents greet the accumulation of wealth as a manifestation16 of a healthy national economy, regardless of how that wealth is distributed or applied17. America will achieve new heights spurred on "by freedom and the profit motive," President Reagan announced. "This is a free-enterprise country," said President Clinton, who added: "I want to create more millionaires in my presidency18 than Bush and Quayle did." Presidents will describe the overseas investments of giant corporations as "U.S. interests" abroad, to be defended at all costs — or certainly at great cost to the U.S. populace. In fact, a president's primary commitment abroad is not to democracy as such but to the global "free market."
In the past century, almost all Republican and Democratic presidential candidates have been millionaires whether at the time they first campaigned for the office or by the time they departed from it. In addition, presidents have drawn19 their top advisers20 and administrators21 primarily from industry and banking22 and have relied heavily on the judgements of corporate leaders.
A president's life style does not make it any easier for him to develop an acute awareness23 of the hard life endured by ordinary working people. He lives like a king in a rent-free, 132-room mansion24 known as the While House, set on an 18-acre estate, with a domestic staff of about one hundred, including six butlers and five full-time25 florists26, a well-stocked wine cellar, tennis courts, a private movie room, a gymnasium, a bowling27 alley28, and a heated outdoors swimming pool. The president had the free services of a private physician, a dozen chauffeured29 limousines30, numerous helicopters and jets, including Air Force One. He also has access to the imperial luxuries of Camp David and other country retreats, free vacations, a huge expense allowance and — for the few things he must pay for — a generous annual salary.
Journalists and political scientists have described the presidency as a "man-killing job." Yet presidents take more vacations and live far better and longer than the average American male. After leaving office they continue to feed from the public trough. Four ex-presidents (Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush) are multimillionaires, yet each receives from $500,000 to $700,000 in annual pensions, office space, staff, and travel expenses, along with full-time Secret Service protection costing millions of dollars a year.
Presidents and presidential candidates regularly evade31 federal limits on campaign spending through a loophole that allows big contributors to give what is called "soft money" directly to state political parties. Big contributors may deny any intention of trying to buy influence, but if it should happen that after the election they find themselves or their corporations burdened by a problem, they see no reason why they shouldn't be allowed to exercise their rights like other citizens and ask their friend, the president of the United States, for a little help.
For their part, presidents seem as capable of trading favors for campaign money as any influence-peddling, special-interest politician — only on a grander scale. The Nixon administration helped settle a multibillion-dollar suit against ITT and received $400,000 from that corporation. Reagan pushed through the deregulation of oil and gasoline prices and received huge contributions from the oil companies. President Bush's "Team 100" consisted of 249 wealthy financiers and corporate CEOs who put up at least $100,000 each to help elect Bush in 1988. In return, they enjoyed White House handouts32, special favors on regulatory and legal matters, and appointments to choice ambassadorships.
It is said that the greatness of the presidential office lends greatness to its occupant, so that even persons of mediocre33 endowment grow from handling presidential responsibilities and powers. Closer examination reveals that presidents have been just as readily corrupted34 as ennobled by high office, inclined toward self-righteous assertion, compelled to demonstrate their military "toughness" against weaker nations, and not above operating in unlawful ways. Thus, long before Bill Clinton thought of doing it, at least six other presidents employed illegal FBI wiretaps to gather incriminating information on rival political figures.
The White House tapes, which recorded the private Oval Office conversations of President Nixon, showed him to be a petty, vindictive35, bigoted36 man who manifested a shallowness of spirit and mind that the majestic37 office could cloak but not transform. President Reagan repeatedly made up stories about nonexistent events. The Iran-contra affair revealed him to be a deceptive38 manipulator who pretended to support one policy while pursuing another and who felt himself to be unaccountable to Congress and the Constitution.
To get to the top of the political power heap the president must present himself as a "man of the people" while quietly serving those who control the wealth and power of the country in ways that are pleasing to them. If presidents tend to speak one way and act another, it is due less to some inborn39 flaw shared by the various personalities40 who occupy the office than to the nature of the office itself. Like any officeholder, the president plays a dual41 role in that he must satisfy the major interests of corporate America and high finance and at the same time make a show of serving the public.
Although some presidents may try, they discover they cannot belong to both the big corporations and the people. The success any group enjoys in winning presidential support has less to do with the justice of its cause than with the place it occupies within the class structure. Presidents usually decide in favor of big industry and finance and against light industry and small business, in favor of corporate shareholders42 and against workers.
On infrequent occasions the president may oppose the interests of individual companies. Hence, he might do battle with an industry like steel, as did Kennedy, to hold prices down in order to ease the inflationary pressure on other producer interests. When engaged in such conflicts the president takes on an appearance of opposing the special interests on behalf of the common interest. In fact, he might better be described as protecting the common interest of the special interests.
On even more infrequent occasions when an issue is given some honest exposure in the media and public sentiment is mobilized, the president might decide on behalf of the public interest, as when Clinton backed his Food and Drug commissioner43 against the tobacco companies regarding the marketing44 of nicotine45. Still for all the publicity46, not all that much has been done to stop that industry from marketing its addictive47 and injurious products to publics at home and abroad.
Generally, as the most powerful officeholder in the land, the president is more readily available to the most powerful interests in the land and rather inaccessible48 to us lesser49 mortals — unless we organize and raise more hell. The best thing we can do is never romanticize the individuals who occupy the highest office or, for that matter, any office.
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corporate
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| adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的 | |
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guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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ideology
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| n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识 | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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vigor
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| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
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unemployed
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| adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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exulted
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| 狂喜，欢跃( exult的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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deficit
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| n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差 | |
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runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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curbs
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| v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的第三人称单数 ) | |
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dissent
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| n./v.不同意，持异议 | |
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democrat
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员 | |
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well-being
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| n.安康，安乐，幸福 | |
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manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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presidency
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| n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期) | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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advisers
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| 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 | |
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administrators
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| n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师 | |
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banking
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| n.银行业，银行学，金融业 | |
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awareness
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| n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智 | |
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mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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full-time
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| adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的 | |
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florists
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| n.花商，花农，花卉研究者( florist的名词复数 ) | |
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bowling
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| n.保龄球运动 | |
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alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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chauffeured
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| v.受雇于人的汽车司机( chauffeur的过去式 ) | |
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limousines
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| n.豪华轿车( limousine的名词复数 )；（往返机场接送旅客的）中型客车，小型公共汽车 | |
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evade
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| vt.逃避，回避；避开，躲避 | |
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handouts
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| 救济品( handout的名词复数 )； 施舍物； 印刷品； 讲义 | |
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mediocre
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| adj.平常的，普通的 | |
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corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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bigoted
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| adj.固执己见的，心胸狭窄的 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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deceptive
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| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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inborn
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| adj.天生的，生来的，先天的 | |
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personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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dual
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| adj.双的；二重的，二元的 | |
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shareholders
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| n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 ) | |
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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marketing
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| n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西 | |
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nicotine
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| n.(化)尼古丁，烟碱 | |
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publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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addictive
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| adj.(吸毒等)使成瘾的，成为习惯的 | |
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inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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