奥巴马卸任演讲（二）
That’s what I want to focus on tonight – the state of our democracy.
这是我今晚想要强调的——我们的民主政治的现状。
Understand, democracy does not require uniformity. Our founders argued, they quarreled, eventually they compromised, they expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity – the idea that for all our outward differences, we are all in this together; that we rise or fall as one.
我们要理解，民主不需要统一。开国先贤们有争吵，也有妥协，他们也希望我们如此。但是他们也知道民主需要以团结精神为基础——不管外在的我们有多么不同，我们是一个整体，我们共进退。
There have been moments throughout our history that threatened that solidarity. The beginning of this century has been one of those times. A shrinking world, growing inequality; demographic change and the specter of terrorism – these forces haven’t just tested our security and our prosperity, but our democracy as well. And how we meet these challenges to our democracy will determine our ability to educate our kids, and create good jobs, and protect our homeland. In other words, it will determine our future.
历史上有一些威胁到这种团结的关头，本世纪初就是其中之一。全球衰退，不平等日盛；人口变化和恐怖主义如幽灵般蔓延——这些威胁不仅检验着我们的安全和繁荣，也考验了我们的民主。我们如何应对这些对民主的挑战，将决定了我们教育后代的能力，创造好的工作机会的能力及保护我们的家园的能力。换言之，它将决定我们的未来。
To begin with our democracy won’t work without a sense that everyone has economic opportunity. And the good news is that today the economy is growing again; wages, incomes, home values, and retirement accounts are rising again; poverty is falling again. The wealthy are paying a fairer share of taxes even as the stock market shatters records. The unemployment rate is near a ten-year low. The uninsured rate has never, ever been lower. Health care costs are rising at the slowest rate in fifty years. And I’ve said and I mean it if anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our healthcare system that covers as many people at less cost – I will publicly support it.
首先如果民众不能共享经济机遇，民主就无从谈起。好消息是，现在经济又开始增长了；工资水平、个人收入、家庭财产和退休金又开始提升；贫困水平又开始下降。富人们也公平地纳税，甚至股票市场跌幅也破了记录；失业率降至近十年来最低。未上保险的比率低到前所未有。医疗健康支出增长率是近五十年最低。我曾经说过，我是认真的，如果有任何人能提出一个可供证实的、比我们现在医疗健康体系更好的计划，以更少的支出覆盖更多的人民——我都会公开支持。
Because that after all, is why we serve – Not to score points or take credit. But to make people’s lives better.
因为毕竟这是我们工作的目标。我们不是为了得到评分或获取信任，而是为人民生活多造福
But for all the real progress we’ve made, we know it’s not enough. Our economy doesn’t work as well or grow as fast when a few prosper at the expense of a growing middle class and ladders for folks who want to get into the middle class. That’s the economic argument. But stark inequality is also corrosive to our democratic idea. While the top one percent has amassed a bigger share of wealth and income, too many families, in inner cities and rural counties, have been left behind – the laid-off factory worker; the waitress and healthcare worker who’s barely getting by and struggle to pay the bills – convinced that the game is fixed against them, that their government only serves the interests of the powerful that’s a recipe for more cynicism and polarization in our politics.
但虽然我们取得了实际进步，我们深知这还不够。我们的经济运转并不健康，增长也不强劲。有时甚至以牺牲中产阶级的增长为代价换取一时繁荣。那是一种经济理论。而赤裸裸的不平等也在侵蚀着我们的民主原则。当前1%的群体攫取了更多的财富收入，太多普通家庭、城市内和乡镇都难望其项背。那些下岗工人，服务生，医务工作人员，他们生活拮据，为账单发愁。认为游戏规则是在针对自己，他们的政府只为有权势者效劳。这是我们的政治中愤世嫉俗和极端的部分。
Now there are no quick fixes to this long-term trend. I agree our trade should be fair and not just free. But the next wave of economic dislocation won’t come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes a lot of good middle-class jobs obsolete.
没有立竿见影的神药可以阻止这种长期趋势。我同意，贸易应当在自由之下兼顾公平。但下一轮经济转型并非来自海外，而注定来自令许多中产阶级失业的自动化浪潮。
And so we’re going to have to force a new social compact – to guarantee all our kids the education they need; to give workers the power to unionize for better wages; to update the social safety net to reflect the way we live now and make more reforms to the tax code so corporations and individuals who reap the most from the new economy don’t avoid their obligations to the country that’s made their success possible. We can argue about how to best achieve these goals. But we can’t be complacent about the goals themselves. For if we don’t create opportunity for all people, the disaffection and division that has stalled our progress will only sharpen in years to come.
因此我们必须打造一种新型的社会契约，来保证孩子们都受到应得的教育;赋予工人们成立工会的权力，以争取更多工资；更新社会安全网络，并反思我们当下的生活方式；对我们的税制进行深入改革，保证在新经济模式中获利的公司法人和个体业主，都不能免除对国家的义务，因为国家将更能保证他们获得成功。我们可以探讨如何最好地实现这些目标，但不能为目标方向本身犯迷糊。因为我们如果不为全民创造机会，那么在未来几年，阻止我们前进的不满和分裂将更尖锐。
There’s a second threat to our democracy – one as old as our nation itself. After my election, there was talk of a post-racial America. Such a vision, however well-intended, was never realistic. For race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society. I’ve lived long enough to know that race relations are better than they were ten, or twenty, or thirty years ago, no matter what some folks say. You can see it not just in statistics, you see it in the attitudes of young Americans across the political spectrum.
第二个对民主的威胁则完全来自我们国家内部。在我当选之后，还有关于美国“后种族歧视”时代的讨论。无论出于什么好意，这种境况都绝不现实。种族乃是分裂我们社会的一种强大、持续的力量。长久以来，我已切身感受到，如今的种族关系已远胜十年前、二十年前乃至三十年前，这不仅体现在数字上，还体现在，纵观政治光谱，其中的美国年轻人态度也大有改观。
But we’re not where we need to be. All of us have more work to do. If every economic issue is framed as a struggle between a hardworking white middle class and an undeserving minority, then workers of all shades are going to be left fighting for scraps while the wealthy withdraw further into their private enclaves. If we’re unwilling to invest in the children of immigrants, just because they don’t look like us, we will diminish the prospects of our own children – because those brown kids will represent a larger and larger share of America’s workforce. And we have shown that our economy doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game. Last year, incomes rose for all races, all age groups, for men and for women.
但如今我们并不应止于此，我们所有人都还有更多工作要做。毕竟，如果每个经济议题都在白人中产阶级和不值一提的少数族裔的争斗中闹腾，那么各行业工人们都会离开岗位大闹一番。如此一来，在社会福利已经伤害到他们个人利益，依然逃避争取权利的斗争的时候。如果因为他们长得跟我们不一样，就削减对移民子弟的投入，那我们也是在缩减我们自己孩子的未来空间——因为那些棕色人种的孩子将占据美国劳动力的越来越多份额。再说我们也已经看到，经济绝不能成为一场零和博弈。而去年，各种族、全年龄层、无论男女都实现了收入增长。
So if we’re going to be serious about race going forward, we need to uphold laws against discrimination – in hiring, in housing, in education and the criminal justice system. That’s what our Constitution and highest ideals require. But laws alone won’t be enough. Hearts must change. It won’t change overnight. Social attitudes. Sometimes take generations to change. But, if our democracy is to work the way it should in this increasingly diverse nation, then each one of us must try to heed the advice of a great characters in American fiction, Atticus Finch, who said “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around him.”
所以我们需要严肃对待种族主义前进的步伐，我们需要捍卫反对歧视的法律。其中包括雇佣、住房、教育和刑事司法体系等领域。那是我们的宪法和最高理念所要求的。但仅有法律还不够，人心要变。它们不会一夜之间就改变。社会态度，通常要几代人的时间才能改变。但如果我们的民主要在这种日益增长的分裂族群中运转，那么每个人都应该努力留意那本美国小说中的人物：阿提克斯·芬奇，他曾说过：“你永远不能真正了解一个人，除非你从他的角度去看问题，除非你披着他的皮囊行走世间。”
For blacks and other minority groups, that means tying our own very real struggles for justice to the challenges that a lot of people in this country face. Not only the refugee, or the immigrant, or the rural poor, or the transgender American, but also the middle-aged white guy who from the outside may seem like he’s got advantages, but has seen his world upended by economic, cultural, and technological change. We have to pay attention and listen.
对黑人和其他少数族裔来说，那意味着我们为了公正所进行的斗争，将关乎这个国家的许多人所面临的挑战，这些人包括难民、移民、乡村贫困群体、跨性别美国人，和那些看起来条件得天独厚，事实上被经济、文化和技术彻底改变了境遇的中年美国白人。我们必须重视和倾听这些人。
For white Americans, it means acknowledging that the effects of slavery and Jim Crow didn’t suddenly vanish in the 60s; that when minority groups voice discontent, they’re not just engaging in reverse racism or practicing political correctness; when they wage peaceful protest, they’re not demanding special treatment, but the equal treatment that our Founders promised.
对美国白人而言，这意味着承认奴隶制的影响还有黑人不会突然消失在60年代；承认在那个年代，发出不满呼声的少数族裔，并不仅是参加“种族反歧视”或践行政治正确；承认他们参加和平抗议并不意味着寻求特殊待遇，而是要求获得建国元勋们所允诺的公正待遇。
For native-born Americans. For native Americans, it means reminding ourselves that the stereotypes about immigrants today were said, almost word for word, about the Irish, Italians, and Poles. Who it was said were going to destroy the fundamental character of America. And as it turned out America wasn’t weakened by the presence of these newcomers. These newcomers embraced this nation’s creed, and it was strengthened.
对美国土著们来说。对美国土著们来说，这意味着时刻提醒我们自己，今天所有有关爱尔兰人、意大利人和波兰人等移民的成规都将被逐字重复。那些宣称要摧毁美国最基本特性的人，最后结果是，美国并不会因为后来者的出现而弱化，这些新人们加强了，拥抱这个民族的信念，这个民族将因此而坚挺。
So regardless of the station we occupy; we all have to try harder, we all have to start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just as much as we do; that they value hard work and family just like we do; that their children are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own.
因此，不管我们持有怎样的立场，我们都必须加倍努力，我们每个公民都需要开始兑现承诺。像我们一样热爱这个国家，努力工作和珍视家庭，他们的孩子也和我们自己的孩子一样有着求知欲和希望，并值得去爱护。
And that’s not easy to do. For too many of us, it’s become safer to retreat into our own bubbles, whether in our neighborhoods or college campuses or places of worship or especially our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions. The rise of naked partisanship, increasing economic and regional stratification, the splintering of our media into a channel for every taste – all this makes this great sorting seem natural, even inevitable. And increasingly, we become so secure in our bubbles that we start accepting only information, whether it’s true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that’s out there.
要做到这点并不容易。对于我们中的很多人来说，待在我们自己的小天地更安全。不论邻居、大学校园、宗教场所还是社交网络，都是与我们相似的人，持有相同的政治观点，从不挑战我们的设想。日渐赤裸的党派之争、日渐增多的经济和宗教分层、为了迎合各种品位而日渐分裂的媒体——所有这些都使这个良好的分类看起来更合天理，乃至不可避免。我们日渐习惯于停留在舒适区享受安全，无论对错，我们只愿接受合乎己见的信息，而非接受客观信息。
This trend represents a third threat to our democracy. Politics is a battle of ideas; That’s how our democracy was designed in the course of a healthy debate, we prioritize different goals, and the different means of reaching them. But without some common baseline of facts without a willingness to admit new information, and concede that your opponent might be making a fair point, and this science and reason matter, then we are going to keep talking past each other, and we’ll make common ground and compromise impossible.
这是威胁我们民主制度的第三股趋势。政治活动即是理念之争。这是我们民族制定如何在健康的讨论中我们将不同目标和通向目标的不同路径都做了排序。但在没有一些事实的公共底线，没有心甘情愿去容纳新信息，没有承认你的对手说得好，没有承认科学和合乎逻辑的事实的勇气的话，我们将停留在相互谈论过去的状态，不可能达成共识和寻求妥协。
And Isn’t that part of what so often makes politics so dispiriting? How can elected officials rage about deficits when we propose to spend money on preschool for kids, but not when we’re cutting taxes for corporations? How do we excuse ethical lapses in our own party, but pounce when the other party does the same thing? It’s not just dishonest, this selective sorting of the facts; it’s self-defeating. Because as my mom used to tell me, reality has a way of catching up with you.
这不正是政治让人如此沮丧之处吗?那些民选官员为什么会对财政赤字感到愤怒，在我们试图为学前教育的孩子花钱时，但在为企业减税时就不会愤怒了呢？我们怎么可以为自己党派的道德瑕疵找借口，却对其他党派同样的行为大加抨击?这不仅不诚实，还是在掩耳盗铃，这是自掘坟墓。因为我的母亲曾告诉我，现实总有办法追上你。
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