堪萨斯州参议员辛迪·霍尔舍希望你知道她不是恶魔，她的女儿麦迪也不是女巫。
Kansas state Sen. Cindy Holscher would like you to know she isn’t a demon, and her daughter, Maddie, isn’t a witch.
“我不是恶魔，”霍尔舍周五通过视频聊天在威奇托对MS NOW说。“我是三个伟大孩子的母亲。我结婚34年了。我是社区中积极参与、为所有堪萨斯人奋斗的人。我的承诺是让我们州人民的生活变得更好。”
“I am not a demon,” Holscher told MS NOW by video chat from Wichita on Friday. “I’m a mom to three great kids. I’m a wife of 34 years. I’m an active person in my community that is fighting for all Kansans. and my commitment is to making life better for the people in our state.”
霍尔舍是堪萨斯州州长的民主党候选人，她在距离选举还有几周的时候抽出竞选时间来确认自己不是邪恶的灵魂，因为她的对手、堪萨斯州参议院共和党议长泰·马斯特森——目前在民意调查中领先——最近指责她进行“恶魔行为”，将他们的竞选以及出人意料的激烈的美国参议院竞选描述为“属灵争战”。马斯特森在周日于威奇托赞美堂教堂的会众面前发表讲话时作出了这些评论，其中包括对霍尔舍女儿21岁的麦迪的指控，麦迪因在TikTok上发布支持母亲的视频而获得了相当大的在线关注。
Holscher, the Democratic candidate for governor of Kansas, took time from campaigning a couple of weeks out from the election to confirm that she is not an evil spirit, because her opponent, Ty Masterson — the Republican president of the Kansas Senate who is currently leading in the polls— recently accused her of “demonic stuff,” casting their race, and a surprisingly close U.S. Senate contest, as “spiritual warfare.”Masterson’s comments, made during a speech Sunday before the congregation at Praise Chapel in Wichita, included accusations against Holscher’s daughter, 21-year-old Maddie, who has gained a notable online following for posting videos on TikTok in support of her mom.
“邪恶正随着兄弟会的成长而成熟，并且正上升到就在你面前的程度，”马斯特森说，他的讲话伴随着激昂的钢琴音乐和观众一轮轮的“阿们”。“我的竞选以及罗杰·马歇尔与汉密尔顿之间的美国参议院竞选。那些是属灵的争战。”
“Evil is maturing along with the brotherhood, and it is rising to a level that is just in your face,” Masterson said, his speech scored by swelling piano music and rounds of “amens” from the audience. “My race and the U.S. Senate race with Roger Marshall versus Hamilton. Those are spiritual battles.”
“我的对手，她甚至没有隐瞒，他们正在TikTok上进行像巫术一样的咒语，这样她才能赢得州长职位，”马斯特森继续说。“就像他们正在做的那种恶魔行为，对吧？就那样明明白白地摆在你面前。”霍尔舍告诉MS NOW她是一名基督徒。
“My opponent, she didn’t even hide it, they’re doing like witchcraft spells on TikTok so she can win the governorship,” Masterson went on. “It’s like demonic stuff that they’re doing, right? Just in your face that way.”Holscher told MS NOW she is a Christian.
“我是路德教派长大的，”她说。“你会在我小时候去的那同一间乡村教堂找到我。”马斯特森似乎是在引用麦迪今年早些时候发布的几段视频。
“I was raised Lutheran,” she said. “You will find me at that same country church that I attended as a child.”Masterson seems to have been referencing a couple of Maddie’s videos posted earlier this year.
在一段视频中，麦迪挥舞着手臂并露出笑容，而她的母亲在一旁目瞪口呆地看着。视频上的文字写道：“召唤一个法术，让我妈妈赢得堪萨斯州州长选举。” “投票支持辛迪参选堪萨斯州州长。”在另一段视频中，麦迪和一名年轻男子在冰箱前做着挥臂舞蹈，冰箱门上贴着一张她母亲照片的磁贴。
In one Maddie waves her arms and smiles as her mother looks on, incredulous. “Summoning a spell so my mom wins Kansas Governor,” text on the post read. “Vote cindy for ks gov.”In another Maddie and a young man do the arm waving dance in front of a refrigerator, a magnet with her mom’s picture stuck to the door.
麦迪是密苏里大学的一名大四学生，主修统计学和公共卫生。她通过视频通话加入了母亲的行列。就像她的母亲一样，她也想澄清事实。
Maddie, a senior at the University of Missouri studying statistics and public health, joined her mother on the video call. Like her mother, she, too, wanted to set the record straight.
“我不是女巫，”麦迪说，她将自己的TikTok账号描述为“愚蠢”和“调皮”。“我只是一个21岁的大学生，现在正努力通过所有的数学考试。同时，我也在这场竞选中全力支持我的妈妈，”她补充道。
“I’m not a witch,’ Maddie said, describing her TikTok account as “goofy” and “playful.” “I’m just a 21-year-old college student trying to pass all my math tests right now. And supporting my mom throughout this campaign,” she added.
麦迪解释说，任何对互联网略有了解的人都能明白：她的帖子并不是在念咒语召唤恶灵来帮助民主党人赢得州长选举。这是一个广为人知的TikTok梗，音频来源于《女巫咒》西班牙配音版的一个片段——该剧讲述了三位年轻女巫的故事，曾在2000年代初期在WB电视台播出。马斯特森未回应请求置评的电子邮件或电话。
Maddie explained what anyone with a passing knowledge of the internet could have: her post wasn’t an incantation summoning evil spirits to help a Democrat win a governor’s race. It was a widely known TikTok meme The audio comes from a Spanish-dubbed scene of “Charmed,” the show about three young witches that ran on The WB in the aughts. Masterson did not respond to emails or calls requesting comment.
共和党人的言论属于极端修辞的一种，这种言论在右翼越来越常见，包括来自前总统唐纳德·特朗普的言论——政客们不仅将对手妖魔化，还把他们塑造成 。
The Republican’s comments are the kind of extreme rhetoric that’s become more routine on the right, including from President Donald Trump — in which politicians don’t just demonize their opponents but cast them as .
在特朗普2024年竞选的首场集会上，他在得克萨斯州沃科警告观众，即将到来的选举的利害关系远超对白宫的控制权。
At his first 2024 campaign rally in Waco, Texas, Trump warned the audience that stakes of the upcoming election went beyond control of the White House.
“要么我们向恶魔力量投降，”他说，“要么我们以压倒性优势击败他们。”
“Either we surrender to the demonic forces,” he said, “or we defeat them in a landslide.”
2022年，特朗普称拜登在红灯下的演讲“像魔鬼一样”。去年，特朗普转发了一篇帖子，称民主党是“仇恨、邪恶和撒旦的政党”。
In 2022, Trump said a Biden speech with red lights was “like the devil.”Last year, Trump shared a post that called Democrats “the party of hate, evil, and Satan.”
政治家或运动将选举的利害关系用末世论的语言来描述、把对手塑造成怪物、或把对手与魔鬼本人联系起来，这几乎不是第一次发生。2016年，美国农业部营养、健康和住房国家顾问本·卡森博士将希拉里·克林顿与路西法联系起来；同年，前美国众议院议长约翰·博纳称参议员泰德·克鲁兹为“血肉之躯的路西法”。
It’s hardly the first time a politician or movement has framed a race’s stakes in apocalyptic terms, cast an opponent as a monster, or linked a rival to the devil himself. Dr. Ben Carson, USDA’s National Advisor for Nutrition, Health and Housing, linked Hillary Clinton to Lucifer in 2016, the same year former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner called Sen. Ted Cruz “Lucifer in the Flesh.”
但明确将政治对手恶魔化，只会留下“惩罚程度”的空间，而没有理解或共同立场的余地，俄勒冈大学信息政治与媒体伦理学副教授、反自由派恶魔学如何在美国宗教、媒体和政治中占据主导的合著者惠特尼·菲利普斯说。“除了惩罚魔鬼之外，你还能对魔鬼做什么？你不会为魔鬼摆晚餐桌。你会把魔鬼踢出去，”菲利普斯说。
But explicitly demonizing a political opponent leaves no room for understanding or common ground, only “degrees of punishment,” said Whitney Phillips, an associate professor of information politics and media ethics at the University of Oregon and co-author of “The Shadow Gospel How Anti-liberal Demonology Possessed U.S. Religion, Media, and Politics.”“What else are you supposed to do with the devil other than punish them? You don’t set the dinner table for the devil. You kick the devil out,” Phillips said.
“在多元民主中，任何把人们完全踢出公民领域的语言或行为都是问题，”菲利普斯说。“理想的状态是人们能够尊重地持不同意见，而不是说‘你如此邪恶，我甚至无法把你视为另一个人类’。”
“In a pluralistic democracy, any kind of language or behavior that kicks people completely out of the civic realm is a problem,” Phillips said. “The ideal is that people respectfully disagree, not that they say, ‘You are so evil I can’t even conceive of you as another human being.’”
霍尔舍批评马斯特森担任州参议院主席期间的记录、他把文化战争议题置于可负担性之上以及他的人身攻击。
Holscher criticized Masterson’s record as president of the state Senate, his focus on culture war issues over affordability and his personal attacks.
“这是我们在对立面看到的那种策略，”霍尔舍说。“当没有记录可依靠时，当没有健全的政策时，或者当候选人与人民格格不入时，他们就会诉诸于攻击对手和辱骂。” “我在这里真正感到担忧的是，他似乎对我的大学生TikTok着迷，”霍尔舍说。梅迪同意。
“This is the type of strategy we have seen from across the aisle,” Holscher said. “When there isn’t a record to stand on, when there isn’t sound policy, or when you have candidates that are just so out of line with the people, they resort to attacks against their opponent and calling names.”“What I do find really concerning here is that he seems to be obsessed with my college student’s TikTok,” Holscher said. Maddie agreed.
“泰伊行为非常奇怪，”她说。“但不管怎样。”《不是恶魔，不是女巫：堪萨斯州民主党州长候选人回应共和党抹黑》MS NOW
“Ty is being very weird,” she said. “But whatever.”The post Not a demon, not a witch: Kansas Democratic candidate for governor answers a Republican smear MS NOW