美国国家公共电台 NPR Despite So Much Winning, The Right Feels Like It's Losing

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The right holds many of the nation's levers of political power. Republicans control the House of Representatives, the Senate, the White House and a majority of the country's governors' mansions¹. Conservatives dominate the Supreme² Court. Despite that, the right's attitude and rhetoric³ often revolve⁴ around pessimism⁵ about the state of the country, especially its culture. NPR's Tim Mak explores the mood inside the conservative movement in America.

TIM MAK, BYLINE⁶: This week, pro-Trump⁷ YouTube celebrities⁸ Diamond and Silk accused Facebook of suppressing conservative content.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DIAMOND: Facebook, along with other social media sites, have taken aggressive actions to silence conservative voices such as ourselves.

MAK: Facebook denies this. The site's algorithm has changed in recent years to favor content from friends and family, something that negatively affects political pages of all stripes. But Diamond and Silk are speaking to a broader feeling among conservatives that they are persecuted⁹ by the powers that be in American culture.

JOHN HAWKINS: That is a difficult thing for a lot of liberals to get. That, for them, you know, they look and see, hey, Trump's in charge. You know, Mitch McConnell's out there, Paul Ryan. Well, Republicans have got everything.

MAK: John Hawkins is the founder¹⁰ of Right Wing News, a Facebook group with more than 3 million followers¹¹.

HAWKINS: Well, a Republican guy gets up. And he reads his liberal college newspaper, and he turns on a TV show where he's insulted. And then he's, like, ah, jeez. Well, maybe I'll just unwind and watch, you know, an awards show. Well, it's the Oscars or something where he gets trashed all day long. This is sort of like a pervasive¹² all-out attack if you're a conservative, and it's all the time sort of thing

MAK: At the core of the problem for many American conservatives is a feeling that the culture war has been irrevocably lost to their ideological¹³ opponents.

MATT LEWIS: Politics is downstream from culture. And I do think that it's true that conservatives have lost, in many ways, the culture.

MAK: That's Matt Lewis, a conservative columnist¹⁴ for The Daily Beast.

LEWIS: There is a sense on the right that is apocalyptic¹⁵ and fearful.

MAK: Earlier this month, Jesse Kelly, a writer for the mainstream¹⁶ conservative website The Federalist, wrote that civil unrest was possible, and the best alternative course would be to just split the country up.

JESSE KELLY: We are just not on the same page on (laughter) anything anymore. And I just - rather than the constant fighting, and before it gets nasty, really nasty, I think we should just go our separate ways.

MAK: Kurt Schlichter, a columnist for the conservative Townhall.com, went even further. He recently wrote a column speculating about whether there could be another civil war and predicted how the left would lose a violent conflict if it ever came to it.

KURT SCHLICHTER: We just want to be treated like every other American citizen. We want to be treated with respect. And we will not tolerate anything less, which - it's just unacceptable for this to continue. I'm tired of Hollywood spitting on us. I am tired of academia spitting on us. I'm tired of the news media spitting on us.

MAK: Donald Trump ran on these frustrations¹⁸ and won. Listen to what he said on election night.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

(CHEERING)

MAK: Yet this feeling of losing the American culture war is still reflected in polling of white, working-class Americans. A poll taken last year by the Public Religion Research Institute and The Atlantic showed that 48 percent believe, quote, "things have changed so much that I often feel like a stranger in my own country." Here's Jesse Kelly.

KELLY: Shoot, I had a conversation with my mother about this a couple years ago. This is - had nothing to do with the election. You know, it feels like something's coming. Just feels that way, and I don't like it.

MAK: These feelings have been exacerbated¹⁹ by treating politics essentially²⁰ like sports - I've got my team. You've got yours. Jonah Goldberg is a senior editor for the conservative National Review magazine.

JONAH GOLDBERG: You know, this is how the center doesn't hold, is when people start sort of, you know, partly out of a understandable sense of frustration¹⁷, but nonetheless starting to embrace the kind of tribalism that says, there is no unum. There is only pluribus. And that's a real, real problem.

MAK: The 2018 midterms are coming up in just a few months. Midterms are often about exciting your base and running against the other side. Democrats²¹ are doing that by running against Donald Trump. Republicans may find that tapping into these feelings about losing power in society is the best way to motivate their base. Tim Mak, NPR News, Washington.

1 mansions   

n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Fifth Avenue was boarded up where the rich had deserted their mansions. 第五大道上的富翁们已经出去避暑，空出的宅第都已锁好了门窗，钉上了木板。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Oh, the mansions, the lights, the perfume, the loaded boudoirs and tables! 啊，那些高楼大厦、华灯、香水、藏金收银的闺房还有摆满山珍海味的餐桌！ 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

2 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

3 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

4 revolve   

vi.(使)旋转；循环出现

参考例句：

• The planets revolve around the sun.行星绕着太阳运转。
• The wheels began to revolve slowly.车轮开始慢慢转动。

5 pessimism   

n.悲观者，悲观主义者，厌世者

参考例句：

• He displayed his usual pessimism.他流露出惯有的悲观。
• There is the note of pessimism in his writings.他的著作带有悲观色彩。

6 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。

7 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。

8 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

9 persecuted   

（尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人

参考例句：

• Throughout history, people have been persecuted for their religious beliefs. 人们因宗教信仰而受迫害的情况贯穿了整个历史。
• Members of these sects are ruthlessly persecuted and suppressed. 这些教派的成员遭到了残酷的迫害和镇压。

10 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

11 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

12 pervasive   

adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的

参考例句：

• It is the most pervasive compound on earth.它是地球上最普遍的化合物。
• The adverse health effects of car exhaust are pervasive and difficult to measure.汽车尾气对人类健康所构成的有害影响是普遍的，并且难以估算。

13 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

14 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

15 apocalyptic   

adj.预示灾祸的，启示的

参考例句：

• The air is chill and stagnant,the language apocalyptic.空气寒冷而污浊，语言则是《启示录》式的。
• Parts of the ocean there look just absolutely apocalyptic.海洋的很多区域看上去完全像是世界末日。

16 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

17 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

18 frustrations   

挫折( frustration的名词复数 )； 失败； 挫败； 失意

参考例句：

• The temptation would grow to take out our frustrations on Saigon. 由于我们遭到挫折而要同西贡算帐的引诱力会增加。
• Aspirations will be raised, but so will frustrations. 人们会产生种种憧憬，但是种种挫折也会随之而来。

19 exacerbated   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The symptoms may be exacerbated by certain drugs. 这些症状可能会因为某些药物而加重。
• The drugs they gave her only exacerbated the pain. 他们给她吃的药只是加重了她的痛楚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

21 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》