当一位政治家在压力下展现出道德清晰度时，它会引起关注。因此看到众议员海莉·斯蒂文斯（民主党，密歇根州）最近成为新闻焦点是件好事。上个月，一名反以色列煽动者在国会大厦跟踪她并说：“我们会在绞刑架上见到你。”她镇定但坚定地回应道：“没有种族灭绝。”“反锡安主义是一种仇恨运动。”她说得对。反锡安主义剥夺了犹太人在其祖籍土地上实现民族自决的唯一权利。它试图通过最野蛮的手段，在政治和物质上拆除一个现存的国家。
When a politician displays moral clarity under pressure, it commands attention. So it was good to see Rep. Haley Stevens (D., Mich.) make news recently. When an anti-Israel agitator stalked her at the Capitol last month and said, “We will see you at the gallows,” she responded calmly but forcefully. “There is no genocide,” she told the man. “Anti-Zionism is a hate movement.”She’s right. Anti-Zionism denies the Jewish people alone the right to national self-determination in their ancestral homeland. It seeks the political and physical dismantling of an existing state by the most barbaric means.
然而，斯蒂文斯女士曾支持一位反锡安主义者参选美国参议院。在输给阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德的密歇根州初选后，她转而支持他，并呼吁其他民主党人也这样做。埃尔-赛义德先生是斯蒂文斯女士正确谴责的那场运动的拥护者。他反复宣扬种族灭绝的谎言，致力于使犹太国家失去合法性，并拒绝承认伊斯兰主义恐怖主义的存在。
Yet Ms. Stevens has endorsed an anti-Zionist for U.S. Senate. After losing the Michigan primary to Abdul El-Sayed, she threw her support behind him and called on other Democrats to do the same. Mr. El-Sayed is a champion of the movement Ms. Stevens rightly condemned. He repeats the genocide lie, works to delegitimize the Jewish state, and refuses to acknowledge the existence of Islamist terrorism.
当我在我的播客和Substack上指出这一矛盾时，斯蒂文斯女士在Instagram上作出回应：“我输掉了民主党初选并承认了失败，”她写道。“你是要让我因为不同意获胜者而忽视或回避我们民主的一项核心原则吗？”
When I raised this contradiction on my podcast and Substack, Ms. Stevens responded on Instagram: “I lost a Democratic primary and conceded,” she wrote. “Are you asking me to ignore or avoid a core tenet of our democracy because I disagree with the person who won?”
“哪项核心原则？”她写道：“密歇根州选民已经做出了选择，尊重他们的选择并不意味着我突然在所有问题上都同意他。”但密歇根州选民要到11月3日才会做出选择，而虽然党忠诚是我们民主的一个正常特征，它并不是一项核心原则。没有任何原则要求当选官员为了党纪而向偏见低头。
What “core tenet” is that? She wrote: “Michigan voters made their choice, and respecting that choice doesn’t mean I suddenly agree with him on everything.”But Michigan voters don’t make their choice until Nov. 3, and while party loyalty is a normal feature of our democracy, it isn’t a core tenet. No principle compels an elected official to bend the knee to bigotry for the sake of party discipline.
阿德莱·斯蒂文森三世在1986年就理解了这一点，当时他放弃了伊利诺伊州州长的民主党提名，而不是与选民对副州长的选择——极端分子林登·拉鲁什的追随者——共享一张选票。
Adlai Stevenson III understood this in 1986, when he relinquished the Democratic nomination for governor of Illinois rather than share a ticket with the voters’ choice for lieutenant governor, a follower of the extremist Lyndon LaRouche.
1991年，包括乔治·H·W·布什总统在内的共和党人也明白这一点，当时他们支持民主党人埃德温·爱德华兹在路易斯安那州州长选举决选中击败共和党候选人大卫·杜克。
Republicans, including President George H.W. Bush, understood it too in 1991, when they backed Democrat Edwin Edwards in a runoff for Louisiana governor over Republican candidate David Duke.
参议员约翰·费特曼的经历颇具启发性。他拒绝与民主党内日益壮大的反以色列派系合作，并公开抨击自己所遭受的卑劣仇恨。他在《无拘无束》一书中写道：“我深尝了左右两派的毒液。”“作为鉴赏家，我可以确认，最具毒性、最苦涩的来自极左。”
The experience of Sen. John Fetterman is instructive. He has refused to play ball with the Democrats’ growing anti-Israel contingent and has called out the vile hatred he receives. “I’ve drunk deeply of the venom of both the left and the right,” he wrote in his book, “Unfettered.”“And as a connoisseur, I can confirm that the most poisonous, the bitterest is from the far left.”
在她的Instagram评论中，斯蒂文斯女士表示，她将“始终反对反犹主义，尤其是当它来自自己人时”，并补充道：“我仍然属于民主党。如果我希望这个党反映我相信的价值观，我又如何能通过离开来帮助塑造它？你留下。你发声。你从内部为你所相信的东西而战。这就是韧性。”并非如此。如果她支持共和党候选人迈克·罗杰斯，或者干脆不发表支持，她就会表达出明确的立场。通过支持埃尔赛德先生，她背弃了自己所相信的东西。列夫斯先生主持播客《他们被纠正了》。
In her Instagram comment, Ms. Stevens said she would “always call out antisemitism, especially when it comes from my own side,” and added: “I still belong in the Democratic Party, too. If I want this party to reflect the values I believe in, how am I supposed to help shape it by walking away? You stay. You speak up. You fight for what you believe in from within. That’s grit.”No it isn’t. If she had endorsed Republican Mike Rogers, or even simply declined to make an endorsement, she would have made a clear statement. By endorsing Mr. El-Sayed, she walked away from what she believes in. Mr. Levs hosts the podcast “They Stand Corrected.”