经济学人250:莱克星顿 卡斯特罗来到华盛顿

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号：tingroom，领取免费英语资料大礼包。

　　莱克星顿

　　Mr Castro goes to Washington

　　卡斯特罗来到华盛顿

　　A rising Hispanic star ponders how to reconcile Americans with the federal government

　　一颗冉冉升起拉美裔的新星思考如何协调美国人与联邦政府之间的关系

　　WHEN it came to selling the Great Society, President Lyndon Johnson did not hold back. In his telling he was offering a new republic, shriven of racial hatreds¹ and purged² of poverty, built by farsighted technocrats³ and legislators upon mountains of federal cash. As he signed one of several laws to create and fund a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Johnson called it “the Magna Carta to liberate⁴ our cities”. He promised model housing to replace slums, rent subsidies⁵ for the poor and loans to turn working men into homeowners. HUD's work, declared LBJ, would “raise up a new America”.

　　当要推销伟大社会计划时，林登·约翰逊总统没有退缩。他在演讲中提出了一个全新的共和国，由远见卓识的技术专家和立法者建立在联邦政府资金之上，那里没有种族仇恨，也没有贫穷。约翰逊签署了几部法律，建造并投资了住房和城市发展部 （HUD），并把它叫做“解放城市的大宪章”。他承诺将贫民区变成模范住宅，为穷人提供房租补贴，为工人提供贷款使他们拥有自己的住房。约翰逊总统声称HUD的 工作将会“振兴美国”。

　　卡斯特罗来到华盛顿.jpg

　　The euphoria did not last long. Half a century on, the Great Society's legacy⁶ is bitterly contested. The left shudders⁷ to imagine America without its welfare schemes and anti-discrimination rules. The right calls LBJ's legacy a failed experiment in social engineering, trapping millions in listless dependency.

　　这种精神上的愉悦没有持续多久。半个世纪过去了，伟大社会构想的成果备受质疑。左翼不敢想象，没有福利计划和反歧视规则，美国会是什么样子的。右翼把约翰逊的遗产叫做社交工程中的失败体验，使数百万计的人深陷倦怠和依赖之中。

　　As a result, an interesting political test faces Julián Castro, a young Texan Democrat⁸ summoned this summer to Washington as HUD secretary, joining Barack Obama's cabinet a few weeks before his 40th birthday. Mr Castro has been a label-defying prodigy⁹ since he was elected mayor of San Antonio, the second-most-populous city in Texas, in 2009. He is Hispanic, brought up by a single mother who was a fiery¹⁰ campaigner for Mexican-American rights. Yet Mr Castro is no radical¹¹. Giving the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in 2012 (prompting comparisons with Barack Obama, who secured instant fame at the convention eight years earlier) he spoke¹² of his immigrant grandmother who dropped out of school to support her family as a maid and cook, and taught herself to read and write. For Mr Castro, this was not a sob-story but a lesson about hard work and American opportunity. Texas is a place where people actually still have bootstraps, he told delegates, and—with a bit of help from society—“we expectfolks to pull themselves up by them.”

　　结果就是，朱利安·卡斯特罗面对着一场有趣的政治测试，这名年轻的德克萨斯民主党人于今年夏天被召唤到华盛顿担任HUD部长，在他四十岁生日的前几周加入了奥巴马的内阁。卡斯特罗在2009年当选德克萨斯州人口第二大城市圣安东尼奥市的市长，是一名反抗标签的奇才。他是拉美裔人，由单身妈妈抚养长大，他的母亲是一名墨西哥裔美国人权利的激进活动家。但卡斯特罗并不激进。他于2012年在民主党全国代表大会上做了政策演讲（这场演讲一直被拿来与奥巴马相比，奥巴马在八年前的大会上一举成名），在演讲中他谈到了自己的移民祖母，她早早就退了学，做女仆和厨师养家，并自学读写。对于卡斯特罗来说，这不是一个令人悲伤的故事，而是关于努力工作和美国机会的一堂教育课。他对代表们说，德克萨斯州的人们仍然具有自力更生的能力，只要社会给予他们一点点帮助，“我们希望人们能靠自己的力量出人头地。”

　　He credits affirmative action with helping¹³ him and his identical twin brother Joaquín (since 2013 a member of Congress for San Antonio) to travel together from a city high school to Stanford University, then Harvard Law School. But ethnic¹⁴ labels do not easily capture him. He grew up speaking English (he began discreet¹⁵ Spanish lessons as mayor). Dapper and a bit prim¹⁶, he could be a corporate¹⁷ lawyer. He urges Democrats¹⁸ not to take a monolithic¹⁹ Hispanic vote for granted. That is good advice and, from him, heartfelt. Many saw him running for governor of Texas in 2018, by which time some glibly²⁰ asserted that a soaring Latino population would turn the state Democratic. Yet in November's elections 44% of Texan Hispanic voters backed a Republican for governor: the state will be conservative for a while yet.

　　他相信是平权法案帮助他和他的双胞胎兄弟华金（自2013年起就是圣安东尼奥市的一名国会议员）一起从城市高中读到斯坦福大学，然后是哈佛大学法学院。但他没有轻易被种族标签捕获。他说英语长大（他在成为市长后开始慎重地上西班牙语课程）。他衣冠楚楚而且有点一本正经，看起来像一名公司律师。他呼吁民主党人不要把拉美裔人的集体投票看成是理所当然。这是他衷心提出的好建议。很多人看到他在为2018年的德克萨斯州州长竞选做准备，那时有些油嘴滑舌的人声称不断增加的拉美裔人会将该州变成民主党的天下。然而在十一月份的竞选中44%的德克萨斯拉美裔选民支持共和党做州长，该州暂时仍然会是保守派的天下。

　　Mr Castro made his name in San Antonio by pulling off a progressive's dream: persuading Hispanic and Anglo residents to back a new tax to finance pre-school classes for poor and immigrant four-year-olds. He built a coalition²¹ uniting low-income parents with business bosses, and held a referendum to secure an explicit²² mandate²³. To counter shrink-the-government types who grumbled²⁴ about expensive “babysitting”, he promised to test the scheme's outcomes, measuring pupils' progress in future years.

　　通过努力实现了一个进步分子的愿望：说服拉美裔与盎格鲁居民支持新税政策，为穷人和移民的四岁小孩的学前教育班提供资金，卡斯特罗一举成名。他建立了一个联盟，将低收入的父母和商业老板联合在一起，并举行了一场公投，以保证明确授权。为了对抗那些抱怨政府“保姆式”管理代价昂贵、支持政府权力收缩的人，他承诺今后会测试计划的结果，衡量学生的成果。

　　His problem-solving style has caught the eye of Bill and Hillary Clinton. The couple invited the young Texan to dine at their home in Washington before his swearing-in as HUD secretary. That sparked headlines about a possible Clinton-Castro presidential ticket in 2016. Serving as a cabinet secretary will give Mr Castro national experience. And with 50m Hispanics in America, almost half of whom are eligible²⁵ to vote, Latino stars are in demand (just ask such Republicans as Senator Marco Rubio of Florida). For all that, running a chunk²⁶ of the Great Society carries risks, in an age when Washington is reviled²⁷ and reformers call states and city halls the only places where interesting policies thrive. For almost 20 years Republican presidential candidates have growled²⁹ about abolishing HUD. Conservatives call it an outdated³⁰ backwater whose funds should be sent directly to the states, so that decisions are taken by politicians who live among regular folk, not Washington know-alls. Its budgets have been squeezed sincethe days of Ronald Reagan, who famously failed to recognise his own HUD secretary at a White House gathering³¹, hailing him with a cheery-but-vague “Mr Mayor!”

　　他的问题解决风格吸引了比尔和希拉里克林顿夫妇的注意。在卡斯特罗进行HUD部长入职宣誓之前，克林顿夫妇邀请了这名年轻的德克萨斯州议员拜访他们在华盛顿的家。媒体争相报道，认为在2016年总统大选中，克林顿和卡斯特罗很可能结成联盟。一名内阁部长的职位可以给予卡斯特罗国家经验。美国有五千万拉美裔人，其中几乎有一半符合投票的条件，拉丁裔明星很有市场（这要去问问这类共党人，如佛罗里达州的参议员马克罗·鲁比奥）。尽管如此，要运作伟大社会这样一个大块头也伴随着风险，在这个年代，人们都在骂政府，改革家们把州政厅和市政厅叫做有趣政策发展繁荣的仅有地方。20年来，共和党总统候选人都叫嚣着要废除HUD。保守派们把它叫做过时的死水，投进去的资金应该直接送还给各州，这样那些生活在民间的政治家们就可以做决定，而不是政府中那些自以为无所不知的人。自罗纳德·里根总统上任之后它的预算就被压缩了，这名总统很有名的一件事就是在白宫聚会上没有认出自己的HUD部长，向他打招呼，很模糊地称呼他为“市长先生”。

　　Still a mayor at heart

　　本质上依旧是个市长

　　Mr Castro seems to be trying something intriguing³²: treating HUD like a city hall, which (like the government of any metropolis) must impress voters with very different world-views and needs. On a recent two-day visit to Austin, Texas he was frank about HUD's constraints³³. Every year, 10,000 public-housing units are lost to disrepair. Nowadays most restoration projects require private or charitable partners. But private buy-in is a positive sign, Mr Castro says. He sees the federal government as a “catalyst” and a “referee”, stepping in when some states fail those who need help. To secure broad consent for public investments, he wants HUD to measure outcomes better, for instance tracking high-school graduation rates of children in public housing. He enthuses about local innovations, telling a conference of city officials: “My business card may say HUD secretary, but I'm still a mayor at heart.”

　　卡斯特罗似乎正在尝试一些有趣的事情：把HUD当做市政厅，这给选民们留下了迥然不同的世界观和需求的印象（就像其它大都市的政府一样）。在最近对德克萨斯奥斯汀为期两天的访问中，他坦言了HUD的限制。每年都有一万个房屋单位失修。如今大多数恢复项目都需要私人或慈善的合作伙伴。但私人买进是个积极信号，卡斯特罗称。他把联邦政府看做“催化剂”和“裁判员”，当某些州无法帮助那些需要帮助的人们时，政府就进行干预。为了保证对公共投资的广泛赞同，他希望HUD能更好地测量成果，例如追踪公共住房青少年的高中毕业率。他热衷于地方创新，并在一次市政官员会议上说：“我的名片上是HUD部长，但我本质上仍然是个市长。”

　　As a national politician, Mr Castro is a work in progress. He can be oddly stiff. In Austin he toured a branch of a youth club active in tough inner-cities. “You're in our Hall of Fame!” staff cried, noting that Mr Castro had used the club as a boy. “Thank y'all for the great work y'all do,” Mr Castro said earnestly. It was polite—but, oh, the tales Bill Clinton would have spun³⁴. Off-the-record he is candid²⁸, profane³⁵ and shrewd, and should let more of that show. Still his data-driven, coalition-building instincts are timely: the national mood is too sour for LBJ swagger. While others yearn³⁶ to tug³⁷ his party far to the populist left, Mr Castro favours “aspirational, collaborative” politics. Democrats need more like him.

　　卡斯特罗正在努力将自己变成一名国家政治家。他有时候会莫名其妙地固执。在奥斯汀他游览了一家青年俱乐部，这个俱乐部活跃在市中心平民区域。“您在我们的名人堂中！”员工激动地说，并注意到卡斯特罗在少年时期曾经是这家俱乐部成员。“感谢你们所做的一切，”卡斯特罗诚挚地说。一派彬彬有礼，完全符合比尔?克林顿常常编排的那种趣闻轶事。私底下他很坦率、世俗和精明，而且应该表现的更多。但他重视数据、主张建立联盟的本能仍然很及时：民族情绪已经对约翰逊的鼓吹失望。在其他人渴望把民主党更多地拉向平民主义左派的阵营时，但卡斯特罗更赞同“有抱负、合作性的”政治学。民主党需要更多像他一样的人。

分享到：