获胜候选人的胜选演讲通常遵循相似的套路：感谢家人、工作人员和志愿者；畅谈竞选过程多么鼓舞人心；提醒人们前方还有艰巨的工作；并本着宽厚的精神向败选的对手送上祝福。
Victory speeches from winning candidates usually follow a similar script: Thank the family, staff and volunteers; riff on how inspiring the campaign was; remind people of the hard work ahead; and extend good wishes to the defeated rival, in the spirit of generosity.
但并非所有民主党获胜者在周二晚上都这么做了。在密歇根州，当选参议员阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德不打算既往不咎。他对对手迈克·罗杰斯说：“那么，迈克，享受你的退休生活吧。我知道你在佛罗里达州有栋房子，还有两艘游艇。看吧，你选择了仇恨，而密歇根选择了希望。愿我们永远不必在本州再见到你这种人。”
But not all Democratic winners did that on Tuesday night. In Michigan, Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed was not going to let bygones be bygones. Addressing his opponent, Mike Rogers, he said, “So, Mike, enjoy your retirement. I know you got a house in Florida and two yachts. See, you chose hate, and Michigan chose hope. May we never have to see the likes of you in this state again.”
埃尔-赛义德还没说完。他接着转向副总统JD·万斯，后者曾称这位民主党人是“精神病”和“非常非常邪恶”。
El-Sayed wasn’t done. He moved on to Vice President JD Vance, who had described the Democrat as a “psychopath” and “very, very evil.”
“Habibi，”埃尔-赛义德微笑着说，用的是阿拉伯语中的爱称。“这里有一个美妙的讽刺之处：按照宪法，你有义务在明年1月为我主持宣誓就职。”
“Habibi,” El-Sayed said with a smile, using an Arabic term of endearment. “There is this delicious irony in the fact that you’re constitutionally obligated to swear me in in January.”
在佐治亚州，参议员乔恩·奥索夫甚至懒得提及他的对手、众议员迈克·柯林斯——不过他表示，“美国人民已经谴责了失败的跛脚鸭总统唐纳德·J·特朗普的堕落、腐败和无能。”
Down in Georgia, Sen. Jon Ossoff didn’t even bother mentioning his opponent, Rep. Mike Collins — though he did say that “the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the failed lame-duck president, Donald J. Trump.”
然而在整个竞选过程中，奥索夫毫不留情地猛攻柯林斯。例如，仅在一场辩论中，他就对柯林斯说“你雇了半个第三帝国的人来给你的国会办公室当 staff”，还说：“如果约翰·刘易斯今天从塞尔玛向蒙哥马利行进，迈克·柯林斯会抓起一根警棍。”不够风度？也许吧。但不仅共和党人完全活该受到这番斥责，而且这恰恰反映了民主党人在新一届国会中需要采取的那种咄咄逼人的精神。
Throughout their race, though, Ossoff pummeled Collins mercilessly. In just one debate, for instance, he told Collins “you’ve hired half the Third Reich to staff your congressional office,” and said, “If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club.”Ungracious? Perhaps. But not only do Republicans amply deserve the opprobrium, it reflects precisely the kind of aggressive spirit Democrats need to adopt in the new Congress.
自1974年水门事件后的中期选举以来，美国还从未在中期选举中对执政党作出过如此断然的否决。这次选举以及民主党的优势幅度所传递的明确信息之一，就是选民确实以蔑视的眼光看待特朗普及其政党。民主党人在发言时、行动时和斗争时都应牢记这一点。
Not since the post-Watergate midterm of 1974 has the country delivered so emphatic a midterm rejection of the ruling party. One of the clear messages of this election and the Democrats’ margin is that the voters do indeed view Trump and his party with contempt. Democrats should keep that in mind when they talk, when they act and when they fight.
未来两年，民主党将需要做出许多决定——推动哪些法案迫使特朗普否决，阻止哪些任命，是否弹劾内阁成员甚至特朗普本人。如果民主党人每天都清楚，他们的一部分工作就是让选民相信，构成当今共和党的那些贩卖仇恨的人和特朗普的走狗必须遭到蔑视，他们就会成功得多。
The party will have many decisions to make over the next two years — what legislation to force Trump to veto, which appointments to stop, whether to impeach members of the Cabinet or even Trump himself. Democrats will be far more successful if they approach every day knowing that part of their job is to convince voters that the hate merchants and Trump lackeys that make up today’s GOP must be viewed with contempt.
如果选民是纯粹理性的，只审视两党的纲领，判断哪一个更合理、更明智，世界会变得更好。在那样一个世界里，我们甚至不需要竞选活动，更不用说花费数十亿美元做广告了。但正如共和党人早就知道的那样，我们并不生活在那样一个世界里。太多的竞选都是这样的对阵：一位合格却缺乏魅力的民主党人宁愿拿出十点计划也不愿发起尖锐攻击，而他对面的共和党人则指着对手说：“这个人恨你，恨你所代表的一切。”这也是选民更倾向于认为共和党人强硬、民主党人软弱的原因之一。
It would be a better world if voters were purely rational, just examining the parties’ platforms and deciding which was more sensible and wise. In that world, we wouldn’t even need campaigns, let alone billions of dollars spent on advertising. But as Republicans have long known, that is not the world we live in. Too many campaigns have pitted a qualified but uncharismatic Democrat who prefers 10-point plans to sharp attacks, facing a Republican who points at their opponent and says “this person hates you and everything you stand for.”It’s one of the reasons voters are more likely to see Republicans as strong and Democrats as weak.
但愿这种看法正在改变。有人可能会说，一些民主党人近来使用的那种直白言辞，是特朗普粗化政治话语的产物；换句话说，他们已堕落到他的水平。但是，像共和党人今年（以及此前）那样煽动仇恨，与在对手做出或说出卑劣之事时坦率直言，是有区别的。
Hopefully, that perception is changing. One might argue that the kind of blunt rhetoric some Democrats have used lately is a product of the way Trump has coarsened political discourse; in other words, they have sunk to his level. But there’s a difference between promoting hatred in the way Republicans did this year (and have done before) and speaking honestly when your opponents do or say vile things.
我们希望奥索夫能明确说明他的对手雇佣了哪些工作人员。我们希望埃尔-赛义德能指出罗杰斯、特朗普和万斯针对他所表现出的偏执。如果他们寻求文明，他们可以自己尝试培养一些。
We should want Ossoff to state plainly whom his opponent has hired for his staff. We should want El-Sayed to call out Rogers, Trump and Vance for the bigotry they aimed his way. If they’re looking for civility, they can try to cultivate some of it themselves.
并非所有民主党人都必须像埃尔-赛义德那样好斗，或像奥索夫那样言辞犀利。虽然当选参议员詹姆斯·塔拉里科毫不避讳地称肯·帕克斯顿为“美国最腐败的政客”，但与副总统互相辱骂似乎并不适合这位德克萨斯人。有些政客是打手，有些则练习柔术。但每一位民主党人都可以从自信出发。
Not every Democrat has to be as pugnacious as El-Sayed or as punchy as Ossoff. While Sen.-elect James Talarico wasn’t shy about calling Ken Paxton “the most corrupt politician in America,” trading insults with the vice president doesn’t seem as natural a fit for the Texan. Some politicians are brawlers and some practice jujitsu. But every Democrat can start from a place of confidence.
未来两年将是分裂的华盛顿一系列持续的冲突，对共和党的缺点进行积极而坦率的揭露是为即将到来的战斗奠定背景的重要方式。难怪共和党已经警告民主党人不要对特朗普及其政府进行不体面的“报复”。如果民主党人以他们未曾赢得的尊重对待共和党人，共和党人会高兴得多。
The next two years will be a rolling series of conflicts in a divided Washington, and being aggressive and forthright about the GOP’s shortcomings is an important way of establishing the context for the battles to come. It’s no wonder the GOP is already warning Democrats not to engage in unseemly “retribution” against Trump and his administration. Republicans would be much happier if Democrats treated them with respect they haven’t earned.
追究共和党人无尽的腐败及其政策失败的责任，并非小气复仇，而是实现正义和遏制未来滥用的方式。如果那些让我国政治的这个时代对我们的未来和民族精神造成如此损害的共和党人的名字永远被厌恶地提及，我们将过得更好。
Holding Republicans accountable for both their boundless corruption and their policy failures isn’t petty revenge, it’s a way to achieve justice and curb future abuses. If the names of the Republicans who made this era in our politics so damaging to both our future and our national spirit are spoken forever with disgust, we will be much better off.