課程正文

I find it helpful to contrast the real America, the place we actually live, with what I think of as “Senate America,” the hypothetical nation implied by a simple average across states, which is what the Senate in effect represents.

As I said, real America is mainly metropolitan; Senate America is still largely rural.

Real America is racially and culturally diverse; Senate America is still very white.

Real America includes large numbers of highly educated adults; Senate America, which underweights the dynamic metropolitan areas that attract highly educated workers, has a higher proportion of non-college people, and especially non-college whites.

None of this is meant to denigrate rural, non-college, white voters. We’re all Americans, and we all deserve an equal voice in shaping our national destiny. But as it is, some of us are more equal than others. And that poses a big problem in an era of deep partisan division.

Not to put too fine a point on it: What Donald Trump and his party are selling increasingly boils down to white nationalism — hatred and fear of darker people, with a hefty dose of anti-intellectualism plus anti-Semitism, which is always part of that cocktail. This message repels a majority of Americans. That’s why Tuesday’s election in the House — which despite gerrymandering and other factors is far more representative of the country as a whole than the Senate — produced a major Democratic wave.

But the message does resonate with a minority of Americans. These Americans are, of course, white, and are more likely than not to reside outside big, racially diverse metropolitan areas — because racial animosity and fear of immigration always seem to be strongest in places where there are few nonwhites and hardly any immigrants. And these are precisely the places that have a disproportionate role in choosing senators.

So what happened Tuesday, with Republicans getting shellacked in the House but gaining in the Senate, wasn’t just an accident of this year’s map or specific campaign issues. It reflected a deep division in culture, indeed values, between the American citizenry at large and the people who get to choose much of the Senate.

原文鏈接

重點詞匯

contrast ['k?ntrɑ?st] v. 形成對照；n. 反差

contrast A with : A和B之間的比較;

contrast between the poor and the rich：貧富差異

by contrast：與之形成強烈反差的是

in contrast with/to：用于承接一前一后的反差

hypothetical [.ha?p?'θet?k(?)l] adj. 假設(shè)的；假定的

hypotherical situation：假設(shè)的場景

hypothetical question：假設(shè)的問題

bring up a hypothetical case：提出一個假設(shè)的例子

imply [?m'pla?] v. 暗示

類似于suggest;

denigrate ['den?.ɡre?t] v. 詆毀；貶低

該詞來自拉丁語，由“de（表示否定）+niger（黑）”構(gòu)成；

say things to make someone or something seem less important or good

people who denigrate their own country：貶損自己國家的人

destiny ['dest?ni] n. 命運

類似于fate；

partisan [.pɑ?(r)t?'z?n] adj. 黨派的；n. （對某政黨的）死忠分子，強硬派

adj: stongly supporting a particular party, plan or leader, usually without considering the other choises carefully;

partisan division：黨派分化

n: someone who strongly support a party or a leader;

highly partisan：高度黨派化/選邊站的人

boil down 熬干；歸結(jié)出（某事物核心）

cook until very limited liquid is left

hefty dose? 大量

a hefty fine：巨額罰款

a hefty dose of sth：大量的

anti-intellectualism [??nt???nt?'lekt??l?z?m] n. 反智主義

intellectual：知識分子；智力

anti-Semitism [??nti 'sem?t?z?m] n. 反猶主義

Semitic：猶太人，Jews的另一種說法

repel [r?'pel] v. 排斥（類似refuse）；使人厭惡，使人反感

two positive charges repel each other：兩個正電荷相互排斥

if something repels you, it is so unpleasant that you don't want to be near it or it makes you feel ill

the smell repels her：這股氣味讓她反感

gerrymander ['d?erim?nd?(r)] v. 不公正地劃分（選區(qū)）

該詞來自19世紀初美國馬薩諸薩邦州長Elbridge Gerry和“salamander，蠑螈”；

resonate ['rez?ne?t] v. 引起共鳴

resonate with someone：與誰產(chǎn)生共鳴

animosity [.?n?'m?s?ti] n. 憎惡；仇恨

animus/hostility：n. 敵意

racial animosity/racial hostility：種族仇恨

shellack ['?el?k] v. 輕易擊敗

completely beat

citizenry ['s?t?z(?)nri] n. 全體公民

all citizens in a particular town, country or state