今年的中期选举周期比以往大多数都更令人精疲力竭，而共和党人似乎决意要让这场选举以我们国家的公共话语跌至新低而告终。竞选最后几周，MAGA官员喷涌而出的反阿拉伯、反伊斯兰言论浪潮是可耻的，理应受到谴责并引发道德反思。
This year’s midterm election cycle has been more grueling than most, and Republicans seem to be committed to making sure it doesn’t end without our national discourse hitting a new low. The disgraceful wave of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic rhetoric spewing out of MAGA officials in the campaign’s closing weeks should be cause for condemnation and moral reflection.
鉴于当今共和党令人遗憾的现状，我们也不应对这两点抱有任何期待。
Given the sorry state of today’s Republican Party, we shouldn’t expect either.
MAGA仇视伊斯兰的歇斯底里情绪，一方面源于密歇根州民主党参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德（民主党）在全国的崛起，另一方面则源于右翼对任何被他们误认为是移民的人所表现出的公开敌意。但共和党人反阿拉伯的叫嚣如今已到如此白热化的程度，以至于他们的攻击甚至无法构成连贯的思维。阿拉伯裔美国选民如今成群结队地逃离共和党，这还有什么好惊讶的吗？
MAGA’s Islamophobic hysteria is driven in one part by the national rise of Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee, Abdul El-Sayed (D), and in another by the right’s open hostility to anyone they mistake for an immigrant. But Republicans’ anti-Arab screeching has now reached such a fever pitch that their attacks no longer make sense even as coherent thoughts. Is it any surprise that Arab-American voters are now fleeing the Republican Party in droves?
共和党人每天都在提供证据，说明为什么许多在2024年支持特朗普总统的阿拉伯裔美国人如今正转投民主党。毕竟，当卫生与公众服务部长小罗伯特·肯尼迪能在密歇根州的一场竞选活动上以“全世界有5亿阿拉伯人，然而他们不产出科学成果，他们不赢得诺贝尔奖……他们不产出文学作品”这一疯狂言论开场时，你很难声称自己的运动欢迎阿拉伯裔美国人的选票。
Republicans provide daily evidence for why many Arab Americans who supported President Trump in 2024 are now defecting to the Democratic Party. After all, it’s tough to claim your movement welcomes Arab-American votes when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can open a Michigan campaign event with the insane claim that “there’s 500 million Arabs in the world, and yet they don’t produce science, they don’t win the Nobel Prize … they don’t produce literature.”
让肯尼迪读读书不会要了他的命。他甚至可以选择叙利亚诗人阿里·艾哈迈德·赛义德·伊斯伯（笔名阿多尼斯）的作品，或利比亚小说家易卜拉欣·库尼的小说，两人都被认为是今年诺贝尔文学奖的主要竞争者。或者，肯尼迪不妨考虑与奥马尔·亚吉博士一起钻研科学——这位约旦化学家去年获得了诺贝尔化学奖。但肯尼迪显然更喜欢听自己说话，哪怕他根本不知道自己在说什么。
It wouldn’t kill Kennedy to read a book. He might even choose a work by the Syrian poet Ali Ahmad Said Esber, who writes under the pen name Adonis, or a work of fiction by Libyan novelist Ibrahim al-Koni, both of whom are considered leading contenders for this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature. Or Kennedy might consider diving into the sciences with Dr. Omar Yaghi, the Jordanian chemist who won last year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. But Kennedy clearly prefers the sound of his own voice, even if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
特朗普对抨击阿拉伯裔美国人并不陌生——甚至包括那些在2024年支持过他的人。仅在过去几周里，特朗普就指责埃尔-赛义德是“圣战分子”和“恐怖分子”，建议他“在获准进入参议院之前先过一道金属探测器”，还轻蔑地把埃尔-赛义德称为“穆罕默德”。特朗普的言论如此极端，以至于他2024年密歇根州外联工作的前联合负责人比沙拉·巴赫巴赫公开谴责他越过了“红线”。
Trump is also no stranger to bashing Arab Americans — even those who supported him in 2024. In the last few weeks alone, Trump has accused El-Sayed of being a “jihadist” and a “terrorist,” suggested he “go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate,” and dismissively referred to El-Sayed as “Mohammed.”Trump’s comments have been so extreme his former 2024 Michigan outreach co-lead Bishara Bahbah publicly condemned him for crossing a “red line.”
“任何基于个人宗教的攻击都是不可接受的，”巴赫巴赫对美联社说。“阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德在美国出生和长大。他是地地道道的美国人。”
“Any attack based on a person’s religion is not acceptable,” Bahbah told The Associated Press. “Abdul El-Sayed was born and raised in the United States. He’s as American as they come.”
阿拉伯裔美国人和穆斯林甚至不需要在某个州的人口中占很大比例，就足以成为MAGA针对性仇恨的对象。在穆斯林仅占人口约0.5%的阿拉巴马州，参议员汤米·图伯维尔（共和党-阿拉巴马州）最近将他们单独列为“城门内的敌人”，《阿拉巴马反射报》称这是他的“反穆斯林讨伐”。在穆斯林仅占居民1%的得克萨斯州，州长格雷格·阿博特（共和党）加大了对普莱诺穆斯林社区的攻击，起因是一座计划中的伊斯兰社区中心，他声称该中心将把“伊斯兰教法法庭”带到孤星州——不管这话是什么意思。
Arab Americans and Muslims don’t even need to represent a large share of a state’s population to qualify for MAGA’s targeted hatred. In Alabama, where Muslims represent only about 0.5 percent of the population, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) recently singled them out as “the enemy inside the gates” in what the Alabama Reflector calls his “anti-Muslim crusade.”In Texas, where Muslims account for just 1 percent of residents, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has ramped up attacks on the Muslim community in Plano over a planned Islamic community center that he claims will bring “sharia courts” to the Lone Star State, whatever that means.
特朗普的MAGA运动用大量的恶毒言论和仇恨回报了阿拉伯裔美国选民的忠诚。现在轮到这些选民来表达意见了。《华盛顿邮报》-沙尔学院本月发布的一项新民调发现，阿拉伯裔美国人正在按字面理解MAGA的恶意，并远离一个许多保守派阿拉伯人仅仅两年前还拥护的政党。
Trump’s MAGA movement returned Arab-American voters’ loyalty with a heaping helping of vitriol and hatred. Now it’s those voters’ turn to have their say. A new Washington Post-Schar School poll published this month found that Arab Americans are taking MAGA venom at face value and moving away from a party that many conservative Arabs embraced just two years ago.
美国阿拉伯裔选民的左倾转变不可否认，而且几乎完全是由共和党人的公开敌意所驱动。2024年，约50%的阿拉伯裔美国人支持民主党国会候选人。在被特朗普及其盟友称为恐怖分子和入侵者一年之后，这一数字已攀升至近60%。
The leftward shift of America’s Arab voters is undeniable, and almost all of it is driven by Republicans’ overt hostility. In 2024, roughly 50 percent of Arab Americans supported Democratic candidates for Congress. After a year of being called terrorists and invaders by Trump and his allies, that number has climbed to nearly 60 percent.
在2024年投票支持特朗普的阿拉伯裔美国人中，有四分之一现在表示他们计划今年改变投票立场、支持民主党；而绝大多数——60%——表示特朗普对阿拉伯裔美国人群体不友好。仅密歇根州就有超过20万名登记在册的阿拉伯裔美国选民。在这场众议员迈克·罗杰斯（共和党）落后于埃尔-赛义德多达6个百分点的竞选中，那些被抛弃的阿拉伯裔美国人的选票本可派上用场。然而，罗杰斯和共和党人却选择对他们抛出种族主义侮辱。
A quarter of Arab Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 now say they plan to switch their vote and support Democrats this year, and a supermajority — 60 percent — say Trump is unfriendly to the Arab American community. Michigan alone is home to more than 200,000 registered Arab-American voters. In a race where Rep. Mike Rogers (R) is trailing El-Sayed by up to 6 points, those spurned Arab-American votes would have come in handy. Instead, Rogers and the Republicans chose to lob racist insults at them.
共和党人再清楚不过地表明，他们的政党拒绝接受阿拉伯裔美国人也能是美国人这一理念本身。对于正在寻找政治归属的370万阿拉伯裔美国人，民主党乐于欢迎你们。
Republicans couldn’t be clearer that their party rejects the very idea that an Arab American can be an American at all. For the 3.7 million Arab Americans who are looking for a political home, the Democratic Party is happy to welcome you.
马克斯·伯恩斯是一位资深民主党策略师，也是“三度策略”公司的创始人。
Max Burns is a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Third Degree Strategies.