莎拉·哈克比·桑德斯是阿肯色州的共和党州长，目前正在竞选连任。作为特朗普总统的前新闻秘书，她在“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）阵营中颇具人气，而且阿肯色州本身就是一个非常红的州。然而，她刚刚发布的一则反福利广告却遭遇了滑铁卢——在保守派中引发强烈反弹，原因在于广告中塑造的反派形象。
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the Republican governor of Arkansas, and she’s currently running for a second term. As former press secretary to President Trump, she’s a popular figure within MAGA, and of course, Arkansas is a very red state. And yet she just put out an anti-welfare ad that’s bombing — with conservatives, because of who is portrayed in it.
人们本以为保守派会点头表示赞同，但事实并非如此。他们愤怒的是，哈克比·桑德斯选中了布拉德——一个二十多岁的白人小伙——作为广告中的反派。许多账号指出，二十多岁的白人男性并非最可能领取福利的人群，因此在他们看来，这则广告嘲讽的对象选错了。康宁·李在X平台上写道：“年轻的右翼基督徒美国游戏玩家是社会上最爱国的一群人。这完全不合时宜，你们之所以这么做，只是因为他们是最容易被贬低的群体。”
You might think conservatives would be nodding their head in agreement, but no. They’re furious that Huckabee Sanders settled on Brad, a 20-something white guy, as the villain here. Many accounts pointed that 20-something white guys are not the demographic most likely to be on welfare, and so in their view, the ad is poking fun at the wrong target. Kangnin Lee wrote on X: “Young right-wing Christian American gamers are some of the most patriotic people in society. This is tonedeaf and the only reason you did this was because they’re the easiest demographic to put down.”
珍娜·埃利斯写道：“谁给莎拉出的这个馊主意？！一些年轻白人男性可能还靠父母的‘福利’生活，但极少有人靠政府福利生活。这是两码事。别把年轻白人男性（共和党需要的一个投票群体）树立成敌人。”
And Jenna Ellis wrote: “Who advised Sarah this was a good idea?! Some young white men may still live on their parents’ welfare, but very few live on government welfare. Those are two completely different issues. Don’t make the young white male (a voting demo the GOP needs) the enemy here.”
就我而言，我认为我们应该完全把种族因素排除在外。就我个人而言，我已经厌倦了听到社会问题在于太多懒惰的年轻人依赖福利。这根本不是真的！全国最大的福利开支是医疗保险（Medicare），其受益人主要是老年人，而他们已经掌握了社会上大部分财富。这是给富人的社会主义，其余的人都在为之买单。共和党需要明白，按某些衡量标准，年轻人现在的日子比过去难得多。限制新房建设的法规让年轻人更难成为房主。政策选择也让托儿和教育变得更加昂贵。
For my part, I say let’s take race out of it entirely. Personally, I’m getting sick of hearing that the problem in our society is too many lazy young people relying on welfare. It’s not true! By far, the biggest welfare expenditure in the country is Medicare, and the beneficiaries of it are disproportionately the elderly, who already hold most of the wealth in society. It’s socialism for the rich, and the rest of us are paying for it. The GOP needs to understand that young people, by some measures, have it a lot harder than they used to. Regulations that constrain the building of new houses have made it harder for young people to become homeowners. Policy choices have also made child care and education more expensive.
与此同时，年轻人不得不拿出收入的很大一部分，来资助主要惠及其祖辈的社会项目。他们并非在家里闲着打电子游戏——他们正在努力工作，以应付房租、育儿费用，以及最糟糕的税单。
At the same time, young people have to pay a huge share of their income to support social programs that mostly benefit their grandparents. They’re not lazing about at home playing video games — they’re working hard to keep ahead of the rent bill, the child care bill, and worst of all, the tax bill.
我认为这才是该广告显得不合时宜的真正原因。是的，州长当然是对的，领取食品券等福利救济的人绝对应该工作或积极寻找工作。我不认为共和党内有人会对此有异议。事实上，可能有许多保守派和自由意志主义者完全赞成大幅削减甚至彻底取消这些项目。
I think that’s really why this ad came across as tone deaf. Yes, of course the governor is right, people who receive welfare benefits like food stamps should absolutely be working or actively seeking employment. I don’t think anyone in the GOP disagrees with that. In fact, there are probably a lot of conservatives and libertarians who would be OK with dramatically reducing or eliminating these programs entirely.
但补充营养援助计划（SNAP）每年耗资1000亿美元。医疗保险（Medicare）每年耗资超过1万亿美元，社会保障（Social Security）则又是1.6万亿美元。靠福利过着“福利女王”般滋润日子的，不是那些热爱电子游戏的年轻白人小伙——根本不是年轻人。而是那些操纵制度的人，让你们赚钱、他们拿走、他们享受，尽管他们已有数十年时间赚取更多财富。
But SNAP costs $100 billion a year. Medicare costs more than a trillion dollars a year, and Social Security is another $1.6 trillion. It’s not young white guys who love video games living it up as welfare queens — it’s not young people at all. It’s the people who rigged the system so that you make, they take, and live it up, even though they’ve had decades to make a lot more money.
这在我看来不公平，但老年美国人是可靠的选民，因此州长急于迎合他们的公平感。
Doesn’t seem fair to me, but older Americans are reliable voters, and so the governor is eager to cater to their sense of fairness.
罗比·索夫是《国会山报》评论节目《崛起》的联合主持人，也是《理性》杂志的资深编辑。本专栏是对其每日评论的编辑整理稿。
Robby Soave is co-host of The Hill’s commentary show “Rising” and a senior editor for Reason Magazine. This column is an edited transcription of his daily commentary.