对于民主党而言，经济民粹主义正在跨越党内分歧温和派民主党人与进步派长期以来就谁应主导党的经济议程发生争执。但许多新当选成员表示，他们拥有相同的宏大目标。
For Democrats, Economic Populism Is Cutting Through Party Divides Moderate Democrats and progressives have long feuded over who should drive their party’s economic agenda. But many newly elected members say they share the same big goals.
来自皇后区的民主社会主义者、州众议员克莱尔·瓦尔德斯正聆听来自哈德逊河谷的中间派、陆军老兵凯特·康利的竞选演讲时，感到一阵共鸣。
Claire Valdez, a democratic socialist assemblywoman from Queens, was listening to a campaign speech by Cait Conley, a centrist Army veteran from the Hudson Valley, when she felt a pang of recognition.
“她在谈论亿万富翁，”上周在其稳固的民主党选区当选的瓦尔德斯回忆起康利时说道，后者在一个倾向保守的地区翻转了一个共和党席位。“感觉就像，这听起来像伯尼2016年（的竞选口吻）。”现在，两位女性都将前往国会，此前民主党在中期选举中大获全胜，牢牢掌控了众议院和参议院，但党内迅速兴起一场辩论，关于是进步派还是温和派将在明年一月主导议程时占据上风。
“She was talking about billionaires,” Ms. Valdez, who was elected last week in her solidly Democratic district, recalled of Ms. Conley, who flipped a Republican seat in a conservative-leaning area. “It’s like, this sounds like Bernie 2016.”Now both women are headed to Congress after a Democratic sweep that handed their party firm control of the House and Senate but quickly gave rise to a debate in their ranks about whether progressives or moderates will have the upper hand in driving the agenda come January.
然而，与以往不同的是，两个派系的成员——在竞争激烈选区获胜的中间派民主党人，以及在安全席位上的最自由派成员——似乎已围绕一个共同主题凝聚在一起，他们中的许多人一致认为，这一主题为党赢得了中期选举，并应成为他们的重点：经济民粹主义。
Unlike in the past, however, members of both factions — centrist Democrats who captured competitive districts and the most liberal members in safe seats — appear to have coalesced around a common theme many of them agree won their party the midterms and should be their focus: economic populism.
上一次民主党同时控制国会两院是在约瑟夫·R·拜登 Jr. 总统任内，当时温和派与进步派在立法计划应有多大力度上存在尖锐的政策分歧，引发党内斗争，一度威胁到使他们的经济议程脱轨。
The last time Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., bitter policy disagreements between moderates and progressives over how expansive their legislative plan should be prompted intraparty feuds that threatened to derail their economic agenda.
众议院和参议院的民主党领袖们已经在应对其中一些同样的分歧。众议员哈基姆·杰弗里斯和参议员查克·舒默这两位中间派纽约州民主党人，如今是民主党在少数党地位下的领袖，他们在争取保住多数党领袖职位时正面临来自左翼的阻力。一些进步派人士要求他们承诺，在压倒性的选举胜利之后，接受具体的、影响深远的政策变革。
Democratic leaders in both the House and Senate are already navigating some of those same rifts. Representative Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Chuck Schumer, the centrist New York Democrats who are now their party’s leaders in the minority, are facing resistance from the left to their bids to keep the top posts in the majority. Some progressives have demanded that they commit to embracing specific far-reaching policy changes on the heels of overwhelming electoral victories.
但是，尽管民主党人在1月掌权后仍将被迫面对所有这些政策争端，许多新当选的议员在一个以削减成本和打击腐败为重点的议程上存在广泛共识。
But for all of the policy disputes that Democrats will still be forced to confront when they take power in January, there is broad agreement among many of the newly elected members on an agenda focused on cutting costs and combating corruption.
新当选的参议员、密歇根州的阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德和缅因州的特洛伊·杰克逊——两人都是左倾领袖，且都在竞争更激烈的州获胜——以“全民联邦医疗保险”为竞选纲领。新当选的参议员、得克萨斯州的詹姆斯·塔拉里科是一位在其共和党主导的州获胜的温和派，他的竞选主张是允许每个美国人，无论年龄大小，都能加入联邦医疗保险。在共和党占绝对优势的堪萨斯州，新当选的参议员亚当·汉密尔顿呼吁扩大联邦医疗保险，使其涵盖视力和牙科护理。他们几乎所有人都抨击了亿万富翁和企业贪婪。
Senators-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and Troy Jackson of Maine — both left-leaning leaders who won in more competitive states — ran on Medicare for all. Senator-elect James Talarico of Texas, a moderate who prevailed in his Republican-dominated state, campaigned on allowing every American, regardless of age, to join Medicare. In heavily Republican Kansas, Senator-elect Adam Hamilton called for expanding Medicare to cover vision and dental care. Nearly all of them railed against billionaires and corporate greed.
舒默在接受采访时说：“他们说法各异，但主题相同。这种声音从国家的一端传到另一端，形成了一个回音室。”
“They say it differently, but they are all on the same theme,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview. “It echoed from one end of the country to the other. It set an echo chamber.”
选民几乎一致表示，解决政府腐败问题是他们在中期选举中最关心的议题之一。众议院民主党超级政治行动委员会在选举后发布的一份备忘录称，在焦点小组和访谈中，“选民对家庭成本上涨的责任归咎范围很广”，“从贪婪的企业及其富有的首席执行官，到腐败且存在利益冲突的政客”。这种态势已经在党内造成了一些不同寻常的意识形态交叉。
Voters almost uniformly reported that tackling government corruption was one of their top issues in the midterms. A memo issued by House Democrats’ super PAC after the elections said that in focus groups and interviews, “voters cast blame far and wide” for rising household costs, “from greedy corporations and their wealthy C.E.O.s, to corrupt and conflicted politicians.”That dynamic has already created some unusual ideological crosscurrents in the party.
蒙大拿州当选众议员萨姆·福斯塔格翻转了一个保守派席位，他在本周华盛顿新议员培训期间录制的一段视频中告诉选民，他计划同时加入蓝狗联盟和自由派进步核心小组。蓝狗联盟是一个传统上由南方民主党人组成的中间派团体，而这两个派系经常彼此对立。
Representative-elect Sam Forstag of Montana, who flipped a conservative seat, told his constituents in a video recorded during new member orientation in Washington this week that he planned to join both the Blue Dog Coalition — a centrist group traditionally made up of southern Democrats — and the liberal Progressive Caucus, two factions that are often at odds with each other.
福斯塔格说：“这种重叠恰好给了我们机会，去争取真正能帮助劳动人民的人民主义经济政策，并最终让我们重新回到国会应当为谁服务的前列。”
“The overlap is, well, giving us the chance to fight for populist economic policies that are actually going to help working people, and finally put us back at the front of the line in terms of who Congress should be working for,” Mr. Forstag said.
这种做法也在影响新当选的民主党人思考如何在新一届国会中运用监督权。过去，最自由派的民主党人一直呼吁通过弹劾来惩罚不当行为。
The approach is also shaping how newly elected Democrats are thinking about using their oversight power in the new Congress. In the past, the most liberal Democrats have clamored for impeachments to punish misconduct.
如今，连进步派也主张，民主党应把注意力集中在推高美国人生活成本的政府和企业不当行为上。
Now, even progressives are arguing that their party should train their focus on government and corporate wrongdoing that has driven up costs for Americans.
科罗拉多州当选众议员梅拉特·基罗斯说：“我们确实需要审视任何具体的腐败案例，只要它能直接关联到当今工薪家庭的实际处境。”基罗斯是一名自由派人士，在初选中击败了一位资深民主党女众议员。
“We really need to look at any specific instance of corruption that can be tied directly to the material circumstances of working families today,” said Representative-elect Melat Kiros of Colorado, a liberal who won a primary race against a veteran Democratic congresswoman.
“我并不确定调查卡塔尔飞机对眼下美国一名普通劳动者的物质状况有直接影响，”基罗斯女士说，她指的是卡塔尔王室赠送给特朗普总统的那架豪华飞机。“但我确实认为，如果我们谈谈其中一些健康保险公司在当今医疗费用持续大幅上涨中所起的作用，谈谈四大肉类加工企业之间的串通与食品杂货、尤其是肉类价格上涨的关系，对吧？这些是美国人民和美国消费者正面临的非常具体的伤害。”
“I don’t know necessarily that investigating the Qatari jet has a direct impact to the material circumstances of a working person right now in the country,” Ms. Kiros said, referring to the luxury jet given to President Trump by the Qatari royal family. “But I do think if we talk about the role that some of these health insurance companies have been having in the dramatic continuing rise in health care costs today, the collusion that takes place between the big four meatpacking companies and the rise in groceries and meat specifically, right? These are very specific harms that the American people and the American consumer is facing.”
如果民主党人选择试图在预算调解程序上逼特朗普否决可负担性立法——无论是围绕医疗保健还是其他议题——这些问题也可能为民主党指明方向。预算调解程序允许一方在通过法案时绕过参议院的阻挠议事。
Those issues may also orient Democrats should they choose to try to dare Mr. Trump to veto affordability legislation — around health care or otherwise — through the budget reconciliation process, which allows a party to circumvent the Senate filibuster when passing bills.
民主党上一次尝试通过不受阻挠议事阻挠的国内政策立法，是在2021年拜登执政、该党同时掌控白宫和国会两院的时候，当时进步派与中间派发生了冲突。自由派拒绝支持温和派优先推动的两党基础设施法案，直到参议院通过他们的首要优先事项：一项为气候项目、医疗保健、教育和儿童保育提供资金的庞大一揽子计划。
The last time Democrats attempted to pass filibuster-proof domestic policy legislation, when the party had a governing trifecta in 2021 under Mr. Biden, progressives and centrists clashed. Liberals refused to support a bipartisan infrastructure measure prioritized by the moderates until the Senate passed their top priority: a behemoth package to fund climate programs, health care, education and child care.
但如今特朗普入主白宫，民主党人听起来更愿意搁置这类分歧，寻找他们能够团结一致、并施压总统接受的措施。
But with Mr. Trump in the White House, Democrats sound more willing to put aside such disagreements and find measures they can coalesce around and pressure the president to accept.
“人们就是觉得自己一直在被坑，我们曾经享受的东西质量越来越差，而有人却从中赚得盆满钵满，”巴尔迪兹女士说。“即使我们不会在具体细节上与党团中的每个人都百分之百一致，我认为在对付这种企业贪婪方面，我们会有很多共识。”迈克尔·戈尔德和卡尔·赫尔斯对报道有贡献。
“People just feel like we’re being scammed all the time, and the quality of the things that we enjoyed is getting worse, and people are getting incredibly rich off of it,” Ms. Valdez said. “Even if we won’t agree 100 percent on the specifics with everyone in our caucus, I think we’ll have a lot of places of agreement in tackling this corporate greed.”Michael Gold and Carl Hulse contributed reporting.