2020年经济学人 列克星顿专栏--搅乱德克萨斯州(2)（在线收听）

Managing pandemic politics is easiest in states with stable majorities, as Andrew Cuomo of New York and Mike DeWine of Ohio have shown. It is much harder in more divided ones, especially for Republican governors, who cannot get too far out of step with the source of much of the divisiveness, President Donald Trump. And Texas is one of the most politically torn states of all. Its Republican rulers, grown decadent by decades in power, are bitterly feuding even as a tsunami of politico-demographic change rushes towards them. Mr Abbott’s highly politicised management of the pandemic may be about as solid as such pressures allow.

纽约州的安德鲁·科莫和俄亥俄州的麦克·德万表示，管理多数席位稳定的州的疫情期间的政治问题是最容易的。总统唐纳德·特朗普表示，在分歧更大的州中处理政治问题更加困难，特别是共和党州长们，不能太过偏离造成分歧的根源，得克萨斯州是所有州中政治分歧最大的州之一。德克萨斯州的共和党执政者们，在执政数十年后日渐颓废，即使在政治人口变化的海啸向他们袭来之际，他们仍在激烈地争吵。在这样的压力所允许的范围内，雅培州长对疫情的高度政治化管理可能是可靠的。

His political balancing act reflects his enigmatic figure. He is much less charismatic than his immediate predecessors, Rick Perry and George W. Bush, and—deep into his second gubernatorial term—less well-known. Having ascended to the governorship via the state Supreme Court bench and attorney-general’s office, he has never faced a tough election. Many Texans have no idea even that he is wheelchair-bound, owing to a freak tree-fall accident he suffered as a teenager— though his courage in battling back from that tragedy is his most admirable quality. Politically, too, Mr Abbott has managed to remain usefully indeterminate.

他的政治平衡行为反映了他令人费解的形象。他的魅力远不如他的前任，里克·佩里和乔治·沃克·布什，而且在他的第二个州长任期内也不那么出名。他通过州最高法院和总检察长办公室升任州长，从未面临过艰难的选举。许多德克萨斯人甚至不知道他是坐轮椅的，因为他十几岁时遭遇了一次奇怪的树木坠落事故，尽管他从那场悲剧中奋力反抗的勇气是他最令人钦佩的品质。在政治上雅培也设法保持了不确定性，这很有用。

He took office as a conservative hardliner—boasting of the 31 times he had sued the Obama administration and soon enough echoing Mr Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric. This earned him credit with a state party that had veered hard to the right. Dan Patrick, leader of the Texan senate and an advocate of American grandparents risking covid-19 infection for the sake of the economy— even unto death—is its most recognisable face. Yet Mr Abbott knows Mr Patrick’s politics is another sort of suicide mission in a state that last had a white majority over a decade ago. The 2018 mid-terms, in which the Democrats flipped 14 seats in the state legislature (and Mr Patrick survived a surprisingly fierce challenge) underlined that reality. Having won his own re-election with ease, Mr Abbott used his increased heft in the party to help launch one of the most quietly impressive Republican rethinks of the Trump era. The state’s next biennial legislative session, held last year, was devoted to property tax and bipartisan education funding, not—as previously—to bathroom bills.

他上任时是保守派强硬派，自夸自己曾31次起诉奥巴马政府，并很快回应了特朗普的反移民言论。这为他赢得了一个努力右倾的州政党的赞誉。德克萨斯州参议院领袖丹·帕特里克倡导美国有感染新冠肺炎风险的老年人们，通过死亡以拯救美国经济，他是努力右倾的州政党的代表。然而，雅培知道帕特里克先生的政见对于一个州来说，是另一种自杀式的任务，上一次自杀式任务是在10年前，当时白人占多数。在2018年中期选举中，民主党在州议会中的席位翻了14席（帕特里克在一次出人意料的激烈挑战中获胜），凸显了这一现实。在轻松赢得连任后，雅培利用自己在党内日益增加的分量，帮助发起了共和党对特朗普时代最令人印象深刻的反思之一。该州下一次两年应届的立法会议于去年举行，专门讨论财产税和两党教育经费问题，而不是像以前那样讨论厕所法案。