介绍:
Time to fire him
Donald Trump is unfit to lead a great political party
IN A week’s time, the race for the Republican nomination could be all but over. Donald Trump has already won three of the first four contests. On March 1st, Super Tuesday, 12 more states will vote. Mr Trump has a polling lead in all but three of them. Were these polls to translate into results, as they have so far, Mr Trump would not quite be unbeatable. It would still be possible for another candidate to win enough delegates to overtake him. But that would require the front-runner to have a late, spectacular electoral collapse of a kind that has not been seen before. Right now the Republican nomination is his to lose.
Worse, it might not stop there. Polls show that 46% of Americans of voting age have a “very unfavourable” opinion of Mr Trump, which suggests his chances of winning a general election are slight. But Mr Trump’s political persona is more flexible than that of any professional politician, which means he can take it in any direction he wants to. And whoever wins the nomination for either party will have a decent chance of becoming America’s next president: the past few elections have been decided by slim margins in a handful of states. When pollsters ask voters to choose in a face-off between Mr Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner wins by less than three percentage points. Mr Trump would have plenty of time to try to close that gap. An economy that falls back into recession or an indictment for Mrs Clinton might do it for him.
That is an appalling prospect. The things Mr Trump has said in this campaign make him unworthy of leading one of the world’s great political parties, let alone America. One way to judge politicians is by whether they appeal to our better natures: Mr Trump has prospered by inciting hatred and violence. He is so unpredictable that the thought of him anywhere near high office is terrifying. He must be stopped.
The world according to Trump
Because each additional Trumpism seems a bit less shocking than the one before, there is a danger of becoming desensitised to his outbursts. To recap, he has referred to Mexicans crossing the border as rapists; called enthusiastically for the use of torture; hinted that Antonin Scalia, a Supreme Court justice, was murdered; proposed banning all Muslims from visiting America; advocated killing the families of terrorists; and repeated, approvingly, a damaging fiction that a century ago American soldiers in the Philippines dipped their ammunition in pigs’ blood before executing Muslim rebels. At a recent rally he said he would like to punch a protester in the face. This is by no means an exhaustive list.
Almost the only policy Mr Trump clearly subscribes to is a fantasy: the construction of a wall along the southern border, paid for by Mexico. What would he do if faced with a crisis in the South China Sea, a terrorist attack in America or another financial meltdown? Nobody has any idea. Mr Trump may be well suited to campaigning in primaries, where voters bear little resemblance to the country as a whole, but it is difficult to imagine any candidate less suited to the consequence of winning a general election, namely governing.
With each victory, the voices trying to make peace with Mr Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party grow louder. He has already been endorsed by some Republican congressmen. Some on the left point out that he is less conservative on social and economic questions than some of his rivals (while privately hoping the Republicans nominate him so that Mrs Clinton can give him a shellacking). Some on the right argue that Mr Trump is merely playing a role, blowing chilli powder up the nostrils of the politically correct, and that in essence he is a pragmatic New York property developer who likes to cut deals. Were he to win the nomination, their argument runs, he would be privately intimidated and would appoint sensible advisers to whom he would defer.
1 all but over 差不多结束 2 all but 几乎，差不多 3 overtake 超过，赶上 4 persona [pəˈsəʊnə] 伪装；假象；人格面具
5 slim: not as big as you would like or expect 微薄的；不足的；少的；小的
6 margin: the amount of time, or number of votes, etc. by which sb wins sth （获胜者在时间或票数上领先的）幅度，差额，差数
7 face off: (informal,especially North American English) an argument or a fight 辩论；搏斗
8 indictment [ɪnˈdaɪtmənt] (especially North American English) a written statement accusing sb of a crime 刑事起诉书；公诉书
9 appalling |əˈpɔ:lɪŋ| shocking; extremely bad 令人震惊的；使人惊骇的；极为恶劣的
10 prospect [ˈprɒspekt] 期望中的事；将要发生的事；预期；展望 A particular prospect is something that you expect or know is going to happen
11appeal |əˈpi:l| ~ (to sb) to attract or interest sb 有吸引力；有感染力；引起兴趣
12 better nature 良知
13 incite |ɪnˈsaɪt|煽动；鼓动
14 desensitise 英 [di:sen'sɪtɪs] vt. 使（病人、神经等）对光、疼痛等无感觉或不敏感，使脱敏
15 outburst |ˈaʊtbɜ:st| a sudden increase in a particular activity or attitude （活动）激增；（态度）激化
16 recap [ˈri:kæp] 概括;重述(要点)；简要回顾
You can say that you are going to recap when you want to draw people's attention to the fact that you are going to repeat the main points of an explanation, argument, or description, as a summary of it.
17 rapists [ˈreɪpɪsts] 强奸犯 18 enthusiastically [ɪnˌθju:zɪ'æstɪklɪ] adv. 热心地，满腔热情地; 起劲
19 torture [ˈtɔ:tʃə(r)] n. 拷问; 折磨; （精神上或肉体上的）折磨; 20 hint [hɪnt] 暗示
21 advocated 拥护; 鼓吹; 为…辩护; 22 approvingly [ə'pru:vɪŋlɪ] 赞成地，认可地; 23 dip [dɪp] 浸; 24 ammunition [ˌæmjuˈnɪʃn] 弹药；军火
25 rally |ˈræli|公众集会，群众大会（尤指支持某信念或政党的）
26 exhaustive |ɪgˈzɔ:stɪv|including everything possible; very thorough or complete 详尽的；彻底的；全面的
27 by no means: not at all 绝不；一点也不 28 meltdown [ˈmeltdaʊn] 彻底垮台
29 resemblance [rɪˈzembləns] 相似，形似 30 namely [ˈneɪmli] 即，也就是; 换句话说; 亦即; 就是说;
31 conservative [kənˈsɜ:vətɪv] 保守的; （英国）保守党的; （式样等）不时新的;
32 hostile takeover [ˈhɔstail ˈteɪkˌəʊvə] 敌意接管; 怀有敌意的接管;
33shellacking [ʃə'lækɪŋ] 鞭打，揍;
34 nostril |ˈnɒstrəl either of the two openings at the end of the nose that you breathe through 鼻孔
35 pragmatic|prægˈmætɪk| solving problems in a practical and sensible way rather than by having fixed ideas or theories 实用的；讲求实效的；务实的
36 intimidated [ɪnˈtɪmɪdeɪtɪd] . 恐吓; 威胁;
37 defer |dɪˈfɜ:(r)| to delay sth until a later time 推迟；延缓；展期
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