密歇根州参议员埃莉萨·斯洛特金最近来到我的母校芝加哥大学，与《Vox》编辑总监阿斯特德·赫恩登一起，在一群学生面前录制《America, Actually》节目现场版。她自以为是在对一群朋友讲话，便毫不掩饰地透露了民主党若在十一月重掌大权后的意图。她希望有志于在政府服务国家的年轻保守派心想：“天哪，这可能会给我招来一大堆我不想要的麻烦，还是别参与了吧。我要传递出这种威慑信息。”我和我的朋友们收到了她的“威慑信息”，全国数百万爱国美国人也收到了。
Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin recently came to my campus, the University of Chicago, to join Vox editorial director Astead Herndon for a live program of America, Actually before a crowd of students. Believing she was speaking to a group of friends, she let her intentions be known should Democrats win back power in November. She wanted young conservatives interested in serving their country in its government to think, "Lord, that might be buying myself a ton of problems I don’t want, so let me avoid participating in that. I want that deterrence message sent." My friends and I received her "deterrence message," as did millions of patriotic Americans across the country.
不幸的是，对于斯洛特金参议员来说，我们《芝加哥思想者》团队当时在场，字字句句都听进了耳。现在，四面楚歌。国会议员和特朗普总统都谴责了她的言论。第三条项目组已将她移交司法部民权办公室进行调查和潜在立案。一家政府监督组织也对她提出了道德投诉。昨天，作为最初曝光此事的学生记者，我也加入了他们的行列，提交了我自己的道德投诉。
Unfortunately for Senator Slotkin, our team with the Chicago Thinker was there and listening to her every word. Now the walls are closing in. Members of Congress and President Trump have condemned her remarks. The Article III Project referred her to the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights for inquiry and potential investigation. And a government watchdog filed an ethics complaint against her. Yesterday, I joined them by filing my own ethics complaint as the student reporter who originally broke the story.
参议院道德委员会该对斯洛特金参议员的言论展开调查了。《道德手册》明确规定：“被定性为‘可能有损参议院声誉的不当行为’的行为，……在现代以来参议院最严重的纪律案件中提供了依据。”因此，委员会面前的问题是：威胁年轻保守派是否会损害参议院声誉，并为未来树立危险先例。
It’s time for the Senate Ethics Committee to open an investigation into Senator Slotkin for her remarks. The Ethics Manual is clear: "Conduct [that] has been characterized as ‘improper conduct which may reflect upon the Senate,’ … has provided the basis for the Senate’s most serious disciplinary cases in modern times." The question before the Committee, then, is whether threatening young conservatives would reflect poorly on the Senate and set a dangerous precedent for the future.
确实如此。斯洛特金参议员的声明显然旨在通过调查和起诉，恐吓议会另一方阵营的人不敢在政府中为国效力。她发出的不仅仅是威慑信息——她向敢于背离其自由派正统观念的美国人发出了威胁。无论你对斯洛特金参议员自身的政治立场持何看法，这种威胁都不符合美国参议员的身份。
It would. Senator Slotkin’s statement was clearly meant to intimidate one side of the aisle from serving their country in government by way of investigations and prosecutions. She did not merely send a deterrence message — she sent a threat to Americans who dare dissent from her liberal orthodoxy. Whatever your opinions of Senator Slotkin’s own politics, such threats are unbecoming of a member of the United States Senate.
斯洛特金参议员迄今的辩解站不住脚。她声称自己真正的意思只是：那些违法的人应因违法而受到起诉。但如果我们重新审视她的言论并置于语境中，很难看出这是事实。她想向有意在政府任职的人发出“威慑信息”，而不是向有意违法的人。正如主持人在她发言后立即对她所说：“你可以让他们在社会上、政治上、甚至法律上成为弃儿”，她在大学生观众面前静静地点头附和。如果她只是想阻止有意违法者进入政府，完全可以说明这一点。但她没有。
Senator Slotkin’s defense so far has been unconvincing. She claims all she really meant was that those who violate the law should be prosecuted for doing so. It’s hard to see how that’s the case when we reexamine her comments and put them in context. She wanted to send a "deterrence message" to those interested in serving in government, not to those interested in breaking the law. As the host remarked to her immediately after her comments, "You could make them a pariah socially, politically, maybe even legally," as she quietly nodded along in front of an audience of college students. If all she wanted to do was prevent those interested in breaking the law from joining the government, she could have said as much. But she did not.
假设立场互换。假设一位共和党参议员表示，将调查并起诉另一方的大量幕僚，导致年轻公共服务人员因担心法律报复而不敢为其工作。人们完全可以想象，参议院少数党领袖舒默及其民主党同僚会冲向参议院议场谴责此类言论，并要求进行道德调查、予以谴责，甚至驱逐出席。他们这样做是正确的，我也会加入呼吁的行列。
Let’s suppose the sides were reversed. Suppose a Republican senator said they would investigate and prosecute so many members of another’s staff that young public servants would be deterred from working for them out of fear of legal retribution. One can already imagine Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and his Democratic colleagues rushing to the Senate floor to condemn such comments and calling for an ethics investigation, censureship, or even expulsion. They would be right to do so, and I would join them in such calls.
这关乎的不是党派博弈。热爱这个国家、认同其价值观、并寻求为其效力的人，无论其政治背景如何，都应当被允许——实际上应当被鼓励——这样做。
This is not about partisan games. Those who love this country, share its values, and seek to serve it should be allowed — indeed, encouraged — to do so, no matter their political background.
许多国家最辉煌的时刻都离不开年轻幕僚的帮助。泰德·索伦森在二十四岁时开始担任约翰·肯尼迪的演讲稿撰写人。佩吉·努南在三十出头时为里根总统做同样的工作。而在肯尼迪和约翰逊政府时期，一支由许多二十多岁年轻幕僚组成的团队被派往各地，记录民权运动时代对非裔美国人的压迫。
Many of our nation’s finest moments have come with the help of young staffers. Ted Sorensen began working as John F. Kennedy’s speechwriter when he was twenty-four. Peggy Noonan was in her early thirties when she did the same for President Reagan. And it was a team of young staffers, many in their twenties, who were dispatched in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations to document the oppression of Black Americans during the Civil Rights Era.
如果参议员斯洛特金的言论无需参议院正式谴责，或者至少无需某种形式的调查，我担心这将给我们的国家带来后果。世界正在迅速变化。人工智能同时冲击着经济、全球秩序以及数百万美国人的思想。战争在全球各地肆虐。我们的政治实体分裂程度超过内战以来的任何时刻。现在是鼓励最优秀、最聪明的年轻人多参与政治的时候，而不是少参与。
Should Senator Slotkin’s remarks go without formal condemnation from the Senate, or at the very least some form of investigation, I fear the consequences for our country. The world is rapidly changing. Artificial intelligence is shocking the economy, the global order, and the minds of millions of Americans all at once. Wars rage on around the globe. Our body politic is more divided than at any point since the Civil War. Now is the time to be encouraging more political participation among our best and brightest youths, not less.