PBS高端访谈:是什么使得2016年美国大选如此的独特?

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Right now, though, we want to step back and get some historical perspective on this Election Day.

　　And joining us is "NewsHour" regular Michael Beschloss.

　　It's so good to have you back with us again, Michael.

　　MICHAEL BESCHLOSS, Presidential Historian: Thank you so much, Judy.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, there is so much to think about on this Election Day, after what the country has been through.

　　Is there any election, Michael, you can compare this to?

　　MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: No.

　　MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: And I spend my whole life looking for parallels, and usually I can find at least a contrived¹ one.

　　But you cannot think of a campaign that's been this personal and this negative. And debates — these have been the nastiest debates. And the difference is, you know, oftentimes, people will say, well, didn't John Adams and Thomas Jefferson dis each other?

　　Yes, they did, but they usually didn't do it personally, and they sure didn't do it on TV.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: What about the divisiveness of the country? That seems to have translated directly from the campaigns on to how vitriolic² people are against the other candidate? Has that happened before?

　　MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Oh, I think — not to this disagree.

　　And if we were living in a perfect world, if this were the election in American history where there were the biggest policy differences, you might expect this, 1860, when we were about on the verge³ of the Civil War over slavery, or 1940, when we were fighting over whether we should get involved in a war against Adolf Hitler.

　　There are huge issue differences this year, but nothing like that.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: I have been dying to ask you this question for a long time. What would the founding fathers think about the idea either of electing a woman as president or electing someone to office who had no experience in elective politics?

　　MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Well, the lack of experience, actually, they would find a little bit more understandable, because they wanted people who were not lifetime politicians. They wanted Cincinnatus to go back to his plow⁴.

　　They wouldn't have imagined the idea of a woman as president. But I think, if they had thought a little harder, they would have had to think what the freedoms and the values and the goals of the Constitution that they wrote were likely — it might take two centuries, as it did, but were likely to lead to a female president at some point.

　　是什么使得2016年美国大选如此的独特?

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: What about the historic nature of that? Hillary Clinton is closer than anybody ever has been to the office as a woman. I mean, she ran unsuccessfully in another term, but how historic is it?

　　MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: The miracle is that it took this long.

　　The 19th Amendment⁵, which denied states the ability to deny women the vote, that was 1920. So, that was 96 years ago. And if you go back, as I have, to the debates of 1920, they were saying, just give women the vote, there will be a lot of female office holders⁶, there will probably be a woman president with a couple decades. Didn't happen.

　　We have to ask why it took so long.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: And we're not anywhere close to parity⁷ even in terms of representation in Congress today.

　　MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Absolutely, absolutely.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Michael, as you think about — again, about the division in the country and about the need to heal this country, what does the historian in you — how do you see that?

　　Do you look at something, oh, yes, we have been through tough times before, we will get through this, or do you look at this as really a moment that's unlike any other in terms of how divided we are?

　　MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Well, I think the happy thing is that the ugliness is more personal and more based on the kind of campaign we have been through than because we're dealing⁸ with an issue like Hitler or the Civil War.

　　If you have got a president-elect coming in and saying, one of my first responsibilities, if not the supreme⁹ one, will be to heal and unite this nation, that can do a lot. That's happened in history.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: So, keeping out immigrants, changing trade policy doesn't rise to the level of a dispute over slavery?

　　MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: It is deep and it is rancorous, but it's not to that level.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Michael Beschloss, it's great to have you with us. And we will be talking to you through the evening.

　　MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: Thank you. Looking forward.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Thank you, Michael.

1 contrived   

adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的

参考例句：

• There was nothing contrived or calculated about what he said.他说的话里没有任何蓄意捏造的成分。
• The plot seems contrived.情节看起来不真实。

2 vitriolic   

adj.硫酸的，尖刻的

参考例句：

• The newspaper launched a vitriolic attack on the president.这家报纸对总统发起了一场恶意的攻击。
• Vitriolic impurity is contained normally in the sewage that vitriolic factory discharges.硫酸厂排放的污水中通常含有硫酸杂质。

3 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

4 plow   

n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough

参考例句：

• At this time of the year farmers plow their fields.每年这个时候农民们都在耕地。
• We will plow the field soon after the last frost.最后一场霜过后，我们将马上耕田。

5 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

6 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

7 parity   

n.平价，等价，比价，对等

参考例句：

• The two currencies have now reached parity.这两种货币现已达到同等价值。
• Women have yet to achieve wage or occupational parity in many fields.女性在很多领域还没能争取到薪金、职位方面的平等。

8 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

9 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。