
这是一个可能具有重大意义的事态发展:选举版图对共和党的不利程度似乎已恶化到这样的地步,以至于众议院中多位“让美国再次伟大”(MAGA)运动的大腕人物可能濒临败选。这甚至包括几位参与了特朗普2021年1月6日发动叛乱的众议院共和党人。
Here’s a potentially momentous development for you: The electoral map appears to have deteriorated so badly for Republicans that a number of MAGA’s biggest personalities in the House may be on the verge of a loss. This even includes a couple of House Republicans who were involved in Trump’s insurrection on January 6, 2021.
如果民主党人能击败其中哪怕几位MAGA大腕,那将是一大胜利。而众多与MAGA结盟的众议院共和党人确实似乎陷入了严重困境。
If Democrats can take down even a handful of these MAGA personalities, it would be a big prize indeed. And numerous MAGA-aligned House Republicans do appear to be in serious trouble.
首先来看宾夕法尼亚州第10选区的联邦众议员斯科特·佩里,他面临着当地主播珍内尔·斯泰尔森的强劲挑战。佩里是超级MAGA派,在特朗普的叛乱中扮演了重要角色。佩里帮助炮制虚假的选民欺诈指控,以制造推翻大选结果的借口;试图安插一个顺从的司法部长协助实施该阴谋;并推动同党共和党人拒绝认证选举结果。
Let’s start with Representative Scott Perry in Pennsylvania’s 10th district, who is facing a very tough challenge from local anchor Janelle Stelson. Perry is ultra-MAGA, having played a big role in Trump’s insurrection. Perry helped marshal fake voter-fraud allegations to create a pretext for overturning the election, tried to install a pliant attorney general who’d assist in the plot, and pushed fellow Republicans not to certify the outcome.
尽管佩里所在选区曾让特朗普以五个百分点的优势获胜,但他现在面临着严重的败选危险。《库克政治报告》将该席位评为“倾向民主党”,公开民调显示他以微弱劣势落后。击败他将意味着打倒国会中最著名的特朗普叛乱分子之一。
Perry is in serious danger of defeat despite representing a district that Trump carried by five points. His seat is ranked “lean Democratic” by the Cook Political Report, and public polls show him trailing by a small margin. Beating him would take down one of the most prominent Trump insurrectionists in Congress.
接下来是联邦众议员安娜·保利娜·卢纳。一个主要的亲特朗普超级政治行动委员会(超级竞选委员会)刚刚悄悄将约75万美元的电视广告支出转移到了佛罗里达州第13选区。值得注意的是,这笔资金是从一位佛罗里达州民主党众议员——凯西·卡斯特的选区转移过来的,并投入到了卢纳的选区,这一意外的防御性举动凸显了共和党选情的恶化。与此同时,该超级竞选委员会还向该选区额外投入了约200万美元。
Then there’s Representative Anna Paulina Luna. A major Trump-aligned super PAC just quietly shifted some $750,000 in TV ad spending into Florida’s 13th district. Tellingly, the money was moved away from the district of a Florida Democrat—Representative Kathy Castor—and into Luna’s, a surprise defensive move illustrating the GOP’s worsening map. That comes even as the PAC has poured around $2 million more into the race.
“这告诉我他们正在恐慌,”卢纳的民主党挑战者、退伍军人兼小企业顾问莉拉·格雷告诉我。格雷的挑战颇具分量,民主党公布的自有民调显示卢纳陷入困境。
“That tells me they’re panicking,” Leela Gray, Luna’s Democratic challenger, a military veteran and small-business advisor, tells me. Gray’s challenge is a stiff one, with Democrats releasing their own polling showing Luna in trouble.
卢娜是地地道道的“让美国再次伟大”(MAGA)派人物。她曾率领一场由特朗普煽动的叛乱,反抗众议院共和党领袖,试图强行推行其压制选民投票的《拯救美国选民资格法案》(SAVE Act)。她还经常凭借MAGA派的陈词滥调和阴谋论在网络上走红,这些言论都是在MAGA派思维的白热熔炉深处锻造出来的。
Luna is as MAGA as they come. She led a Trump-fueled rebellion against House GOP leaders to try to force through his vote-suppressing SAVE Act. She also regularly goes viral with MAGA tropes and conspiracy theories forged deep in the white-hot furnace of the MAGA hive mind.
必须明确的是,卢娜依然难以击败。该选区竞争态势被评为“倾向共和党”。但即便她最终幸存,共和党为她调动大规模防御性增援这一事实本身,就表明MAGA派势力严重衰弱:特朗普在2024年曾以13个百分点的优势赢下她的选区,而她是总统的高调盟友。她本不该处于任何险境,而巨额资金的注入表明她非常危险。
To be clear, Luna will still be hard to beat. The race is rated “lean Republican.”But even if she does survive, the shifting of major GOP defensive reinforcements on her behalf itself suggests serious MAGA enfeeblement: Trump carried her district by 13 points in 2024, and she’s a high-profile ally of the president. She shouldn’t be in any danger, and the huge infusion of cash shows she very much is.
还有联邦众议员马克斯·米勒,他被视为对MAGA宇宙至关重要——一位记者称他为“年轻的MAGA王室成员”——以至于他能在没有遭到共和党内部严厉谴责的情况下,度过严重的家庭暴力指控。更有甚者,米勒还效仿MAGA掌门人,咄咄逼人地辱骂记者——他曾称一名记者“恶心透顶”。
Then there’s Representative Max Miller, who is seen as so critical to the MAGA universe—one reporter described him as “young MAGA royalty”—that he’s been able to weather serious domestic abuse allegations without severe recriminations within the GOP. For good measure, Miller even aggressively abuses reporters—he called one “disgusting”—in monkey-see-monkey-do homage to the MAGA master himself.
特朗普曾以11个百分点的优势赢下俄亥俄州第7选区,然而米勒却面临工会铁工布赖恩·波因德克斯特极具冲劲的挑战,该选情被评为“势均力敌”。在这片深处特朗普腹地的俄亥俄州东北部击败他,无异于推翻一位MAGA豁免权的显性代言人——一个代表暴力的、无后果的MAGA厌女症以及全方位咆哮式辱骂的海报人物。
Trump won Ohio’s 7th district by 11 points, yet here Miller is facing a very spirited challenge from union ironworker Brian Poindexter that’s ranked a “toss-up.”Defeating him in this part of northeast Ohio, which is deep in Trump country, would be akin to taking down an apparent poster boy for MAGA impunity—for violent, consequences-free MAGA misogyny and all-around snarling abusiveness.
再看威斯康星州第3选区的联邦众议员德里克·范奥登。他的民主党挑战者丽贝卡·库克在奶牛场长大,很适合这个特朗普以7个百分点优势赢下的农村选区,因此该选情被评为“倾向民主党”。在其他处于劣势的共和党人纷纷与特朗普划清界限之际,范奥登却紧紧拥抱特朗普,毫不掩饰地开展亲“让美国再次伟大”(MAGA)竞选,押注特朗普的基本盘能让他过关。
Or what about Representative Derrick Van Orden, in Wisconsin’s 3rd district? His Democratic challenger, Rebecca Cooke, grew up on a dairy farm and is a good fit for this rural district, which Trump won by seven points, leading the race to be ranked “lean Democratic.”At a time when other vulnerable Republicans are fleeing Trump, Van Orden has aggressively hugged him while running an unabashedly pro-MAGA campaign, betting heavily on the Trump base to carry him through.
在2022年当选前,范奥登曾参加特朗普于1月6日举行的“拯救美国”集会,随队伍向国会大厦进发,热烈支持暴乱者的诉求。同样可能处于劣势的还有威斯康星州第1选区联邦众议员布赖恩·斯泰尔,他是特朗普所谓“选举诚信”谬论的大力鼓吹者。
Before getting elected in 2022, Van Orden attended Trump’s “Save America” rally on January 6, marching toward the Capitol and enthusiastically backing the insurrectionists’ aims. Also potentially vulnerable: Representative Bryan Steil of Wisconsin’s 1st district, a big proponent of Trump’s “election integrity” nonsense.
毫无疑问:所有这些选战依然是势均力敌的苦战。但截至目前,民主党有信心击败佩里、米勒和范奥登。虽然击败卢纳难度更大,但在民主党大获全胜的夜晚也可能触手可及。如果不行,在民主党仅仅表现良好的夜晚,击败另外三人(甚至可能包括斯泰尔)依然大有可为。
Make no mistake: All these races are still dog fights. But as of now, Democrats feel confident about beating Perry, Miller, and Van Orden. Though defeating Luna is still a steeper climb, it may be within reach on a very good night for Democrats. If not, knocking off the three others (and possibly Steil too) is still very doable on a merely good night.
我认为,这场大选中一个被低估的因素是公众对“让美国再次伟大”愿景三大支柱的拒绝:关税、白人民族主义种族清洗和“美国优先”外交政策。正如保罗·克鲁格曼所解释的,问题不仅在于关税是严重的滥用职权、驱逐行动极其残酷,还在于两者甚至未能实现MAGA经济学承诺的物质目标:没有出现制造业大规模复苏,移民劳动力减少也未给本土出生的美国蓝领工人带来就业爆发式增长。
I’ve argued that an underappreciated factor in this election is the public’s rejection of all three major pillars of the MAGA vision: tariffs, white-nationalist ethnic cleansing, and “America First” foreign policy. As Paul Krugman explains, it isn’t just that the tariffs are serious abuses of power and that the deportations are profoundly cruel. It’s also that both have spectacularly failed even to achieve the material goals that MAGA economics promised: There’s no major manufacturing rebound, and the decline in immigrant labor isn’t unleashing an explosion of blue-collar work for native-born Americans.
此外,“美国优先”并非“孤立主义”,而是不受约束的沙文主义军国主义,加上对国际承诺和同盟关系的鲁莽漠视,已让我们再次陷入中东一场灾难性的泥沼。在关税、驱逐移民和战争这三大问题上,特朗普的支持率都极低。结果是:他葬送了共和党在经济、移民和国家安全方面的长期优势。MAGA民族主义将国家推向毁灭,也将共和党推向选举深渊。
On top of that, “America First”—which is not “isolationism” but rather unchecked jingoistic militarism combined with reckless disregard for international commitments and alliances—has gotten us mired in yet another disastrous quagmire in the Middle East. On all three—tariffs, deportations, and war—Trump is deeply, deeply underwater. The result: He has thrown away the GOP’s frequent advantages on the economy, immigration, and national security. MAGA nationalism has brought the country to ruin and pushed the GOP toward the electoral abyss.
再加上佩里、米勒和范奥登等人被击败,将削去MAGA阵营在众议院中最具知名度的一大批代表人物。这一切都将强化一种感觉:MAGA作为一场运动正不可避免地步入黄昏——更不用说MAGA“神王”本人显而易见的日薄西山了。
Add to all that the unseating of people like Perry, Miller, and Van Orden, which would knock off a big chunk of MAGA Nation’s highest-profile representation in the House. It all would reinforce the sense that MAGA as a movement is inexorably entering into its twilight—along with the visible sunsetting, needless to say, of the MAGA God King himself.