共和党在本次中期选举之夜遭遇惨败，但最大的胜利之一莫过于特朗普支持者拜伦·唐纳兹在佛罗里达州州长选举中获胜。唐纳兹将成为该州历史上首位黑人州长。如果你能让杰斐逊·戴维斯复活，并告诉他佛罗里达州州长将是一位黑人共和党人，且娶了一位白人妻子，他会直接爬回棺材里。
One of the biggest Republican wins in an otherwise-terrible midterm night for the GOP was the victory of the Trump-supporting Byron Donalds in Florida’s race for governor. Donalds will become the first Black governor of that state. If you could resurrect Jefferson Davis and tell him that the governor of Florida will be a Black Republican married to a white woman, he would crawl straight back into his coffin.
考虑到“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）运动对多元化的敌视，以及其对由国家强制执行严格种族和性别等级制度的美国的怀旧，这成为MAGA在挫败之夜中的最大胜利实属罕见。换句话说，即使共和党人在其他地方获胜，特朗普那种种族排他性的美国公民观也输了。特朗普可以恐吓美国企业取消DEI（多元、公平与包容）项目；可以威胁高校减少有色人种学生的录取；可以动用联邦政府的全部力量驱逐移民。但他无法凭意志消除真实存在的美国。
That this was MAGA’s big win in a night of defeats is remarkable, given the movement’s hostility toward diversity, and its nostalgia for an America where rigid race and gender hierarchies were enforced by the state. Even where Republicans won, in other words, President Trump’s racially exclusive conception of American citizenship lost. Trump could browbeat corporate America into eliminating DEI programs; he could threaten colleges to let in fewer students of color; he could direct the full power of the federal government toward deporting immigrants. But he could not will away the America that actually exists.
从中期选举中浮现的美国，不是1950年代麦迪逊大道广告宣传片中那种单一肤色的世界。这是一个由各式各样的人组成的多元国家，他们都是美国人。除了唐纳兹之外，基莎·兰斯·博特姆斯在佐治亚州、亚伦·福特在内华达州、大卫·克劳利在威斯康星州的胜利，意味着美国历史上将出现创纪录数量的黑人州长。在德克萨斯州——墨西哥裔美国人直到20世纪中叶仍遭受法制化种族歧视的地方——吉娜·伊诺霍萨将成为首位西班牙裔州长。
The America that emerges from the midterm elections is not the monochrome world of Madison Avenue ad campaigns from the 1950s. It is a diverse country, made up of many different kinds of people, all of whom are American. The victories of Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia, Aaron Ford in Nevada, and David Crowley in Wisconsin, in addition to that of Donalds, mean that there will be more Black governors than ever in U.S. history. In Texas, where Mexican Americans were subject to legalized forms of racial discrimination until the mid-20th century, Gina Hinojosa will become the first Hispanic governor.
哈维尔·贝塞拉是加利福尼亚州首位当选的西班牙裔州长，德布·哈兰德将成为新墨西哥州首位美洲原住民州长。明尼苏达州的佩吉·弗拉纳根将成为首位当选联邦参议员的美洲原住民女性。而密歇根州的阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德将成为首位穆斯林联邦参议员。
Xavier Becerra is the first Hispanic governor to be elected in California, and Deb Haaland will become New Mexico’s first Native American governor. Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota will become the first Native American woman elected to the U.S. Senate. And Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan will become the first Muslim U.S. senator.
尽管总统以及许多追随他步伐的共和党人试图将中期选举聚焦于一个熟悉的主题——即国家正遭到陌生人的入侵，这些人不属于这里，更不属于权力的大厅——但事情还是发生了。
This happened despite the president, and the many Republicans who followed his lead, trying to make the midterms about a familiar theme: the country being invaded by strange people who do not belong here, let alone in the halls of power.
特朗普总统和其他人称埃尔-赛义德为“圣战分子”，副总统万斯说他应该“向给予他一切的国家表达一点感激之情”。（和万斯一样，埃尔-赛义德出生在这里。）埃尔-赛义德获胜后对特朗普说：“我知道你对我的名字很头疼。你可以直接叫我参议员。”共和党人在“孤星州”散布关于“伊斯兰教法”的恐惧，结果在所有主要全州范围的职位竞选中全部落败。
President Trump and others called El-Sayed a “jihadist,” and Vice President Vance said he should “show a little gratitude to the country that gave him everything.” (Like Vance, El-Sayed was born here.) After El-Sayed won, he told Trump, “I know you struggled with my name. You can just go on and call me Senator.”Republicans fearmongered about “Sharia law” before losing every major statewide office in the Lone Star State.
在明尼苏达州，候选人攻击索马里裔，投放广告称“索马里帮派”正在接管。在俄亥俄州的一次演讲中，特朗普抨击明尼苏达州民主党人伊尔汗·奥马尔：“她来自一个没有法律、没有警察、没有军队的国家，他们所做的只是互相残杀。”他接着说：“他们进入美利坚合众国，却告诉我们如何管理我们的国家。我们不会容忍。”
In Minnesota, candidates attacked Somalis, running spots about “Somali gangs” taking over. During a speech in Ohio, Trump went after the Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar: “She comes in from a country without laws, without police, without military, without—all they do is shoot each other.”He continued, “They come into the United States of America, and they tell us how to run our country. We’re not going to stand for it.”
特朗普在2016年和2024年靠着这种将责任推给种族和宗教少数群体的策略获胜，这让许多政客和媒体人物相信该策略阴险地有效，或者至少不会让太多人反感。毕竟，在2020年和2024年，特朗普扩大了他的联盟，在黑人、西班牙裔和白人选民中都获得了更多支持。但这一策略无法克服特朗普自己用关税和一场可以说是非法、无可争议地不明智的伊朗战争制造的经济逆风。
Trump won in 2016 and in 2024 while leaning into this strategy of scapegoating ethnic and religious minorities, which convinced many politicians and media figures that the strategy was deviously effective, or at least that it didn’t turn too many people off. After all, in 2020 and 2024, Trump grew his coalition, gaining support among Black and Hispanic voters as well as white ones. But the strategy could not overcome the economic headwinds Trump himself created with tariffs and the arguably illegal, inarguably ill-advised war in Iran.
2024年许多选民还相信，特朗普会将移民执法重点放在罪犯身上，而不是发动一场暴力且无差别的行动，导致学童及其家人躲藏在家中，蒙面枪手在街头枪杀美国人。
Many voters in 2024 also believed that Trump would focus immigration enforcement on criminals, instead of on a violent and indiscriminate campaign that would involve schoolchildren and their families hiding in their homes and masked gunmen shooting Americans dead in the streets.
我不会重蹈2024年后特朗普派共和党人的覆辙，宣称美国选民已永久性地向我的政策偏好重组。经济管理不善和战争显然是民主党获胜的主要驱动力。然而，这些胜利确实表明，真实的美国并非保守派受1945年至1964年启发而编织的“真实美国”那般。真正的美国人不仅仅是那些祖先乘坐“五月花号”抵达、或祖先参加过独立战争或内战、或用“传统美国人”这类可悲的委婉语来形容自己的人。
I am not going to make the same mistake as the Trump Republicans after 2024 did and declare a permanent realignment of the U.S. electorate toward my policy preferences. Economic mismanagement and the war were clearly the primary drivers of Democratic success. What these wins do say, however, is that the real America is not the “Real America” of conservative fan fiction inspired by the years 1945 to 1964. Real Americans are not just those whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower, or whose ancestors served in the Revolution or Civil War, or who describe themselves with pathetic euphemisms such as “Heritage American.”
正如亚伯拉罕·林肯曾说的那样，相信“人人生而平等”这一原则的新来者“有权主张这一原则，就如同他们是撰写《独立宣言》者的血脉相传、骨肉相连；他们确实也是”。
As Abraham Lincoln once said, newcomers who believe in the principle that “all men are created equal” have “a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declaration; and so they are.”
一旦计票结果显示惨败的程度，MAGA人士便开始将共和党的失利归咎于国家的多元性。保守派播客主持人本尼·约翰逊发帖称：“1970年，德克萨斯州白人人口占比89%。2000年为50%。现在不到39%。人口结构决定命运。”特朗普顾问劳拉·卢默宣称：“美国一直注定是一个白人占多数的国家。不是第三世界少数族裔的污水池。美国建立之初是一个基督教国家。不是穆斯林国家。”
As soon as the returns made the extent of the bloodbath clear, MAGA personalities began blaming the nation’s diversity for Republicans’ losses. The conservative podcaster Benny Johnson posted, “In 1970, the White population in Texas was 89%. In 2000, it was 50%. Now it’s less than 39%. Demographics is destiny.”The Trump adviser Laura Loomer declared, “America was always intended to be a majority White country. Not a cesspool for third world minorities. America was founded as a Christian country. Not a Muslim country.”
“民主党输入了数百万外国人，给他们一大堆免费福利，然后让他们登记投票，”网红查亚·赖奇克的账号在X上发帖称。“如果我们想再次获胜，就需要将驱逐和取消入籍力度加倍，否则我们的国家将永远落入共产党人手中。”与约翰逊的观点相反，人口结构并非命运——如果真是这样，德克萨斯州早就翻蓝了，特朗普也不会在2024年在那里以两位数优势获胜。
“Democrats imported millions of foreigners, handed them a bunch of free shit, and then registered them to vote,” the account of the influencer Chaya Raichik posted on X. “If we ever want to win again we need deportations and denaturalizations ramped up on steroids or our country will forever be lost to the communists.”Contrary to Johnson, demographics is not destiny—if it was, Texas would have flipped a long time ago and Trump would not have won there by double digits in 2024.
数百万非白人美国人持有保守主义信仰，其中大多数人会乐意投票给那些把他们当作美国人而非入侵者对待的共和党人。至于卢默，美国在建国之初明确就不是一个基督教国家，我们还曾因它是否为白人国家而爆发内战——而卢默站在的那一方输了。赖奇克呼吁种族清洗，令人发指，但这也说明了极右翼如何看待这个问题：存在一些并非白人的美国人，他们的选票与极右翼的选票分量一样重。你不能因为某人的种族背景呼吁将其流放，却指望他们投你的票。
Millions of nonwhite Americans have conservative beliefs, and most of them would be happy to vote for Republicans who treated them as Americans instead of invaders. As for Loomer, not only was America explicitly not founded as a Christian country, but we also fought a civil war over whether it was a white country—and the side taken by Loomer lost. Raichik’s call for ethnic cleansing is grotesque, but it nonetheless illustrates how those on the extreme right see the problem, which is that there are Americans who are not white whose votes count as much as theirs. You cannot call for people to be exiled because of their ethnic background and expect them to vote for you.
9月，特朗普说：“美国不属于那些恨它的人。美国属于那些爱它的人。”但“让美国再次伟大”阵营谈论真实存在的美国——而非它想象中曾经存在的美国——的方式，听起来根本不像爱。无论美国人是否信奉多元文化主义，我们就是多元文化的。前者是一种意识形态；后者是一个事实。
In September, Trump said, “America does not belong to those who hate it. America belongs to those who love it.”But the way MAGA talks about the America that actually exists—as opposed to the one it imagines once existed—doesn’t sound like love at all. Whether or not Americans believe in multiculturalism, we are multicultural. One is an ideology; the other is a fact.