欧美名人演讲 第39期:奥巴马最后一次国情咨文(20)

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　　我们要让投票更容易，而不是更难，我们应顺应现在的生活方式，使投票方式现代化。

　　This is America. We want to make it easier for people to participate.

　　这里是美国。我们想让人们能更容易地参与进来。

　　And over the course of this year, I intend to travel the country to push for reforms that do just that.

　　今年，我打算走遍全国，来推进这些改革。

　　But I can't do these things on my own.

　　但仅凭我一人之力，是无法做到这些的。

　　Changes in our political process in not just who gets elected but how they get elected that will only happen when the American people demand it. It will depend on you.

　　政治进程的变革，不是改变谁当选，而是改变当选的方式。只有美国民众要求进行变革时，变革才会发生。这是由你们决定的。

　　That's what's meant by a government of, by, and for the people.

　　这就是“民有、民治、民享政府”的真正含义。

　　What I'm suggesting for is hard.

　　我所提出的要求绝非易事。

　　It's a lot easier to be cynical²; to accept that change isn't possible, and politics is hopeless, and the problem is all the folks elected don't care, and they believe that our voices and actions don't matter.

　　相比而言，变得愤世嫉俗，认为变革不可能发生、政治已经无药可救，并且认定自己的呼声和行动毫无意义，这些事情更容易做到。

　　But if we give up now, then we forsake³ a better future.

　　但是如果我们现在放弃，那我们也放弃了更加美好的未来。

　　Those with money and power will gain greater control over the decisions that could send a young soldier to war, or allow another economic disaster, or roll back the equal rights and voting rights that generations of Americans have fought, even died, to secure.

　　拥有金钱和权力的人会在更大程度上左右重大决定，可能是将年轻士兵送往前线，可能是批准会引起灾难的经济政策，也可能是为了维持控制权，驳回历代美国人民为之奋斗牺牲的平等权和投票权。

　　And then as frustration⁴ grows, there will be voices urging us to fall back into our respected tribes⁵, to scapegoat⁶ fellow citizens who don't look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background.

　　如果这样的倒行逆施持续下去，又会有人催促我们回到部落时代，让那些与我们长相不同，信仰不同，选举方式不同，背景不同的同胞当他们的替罪羊。

　　We can't afford to go down that path. It won't deliver the economy we want, it will not produce the security we want, but most of all, it contradicts⁷ everything that makes us the envy of the world.

　　我们不能选择那条道路，因为路的尽头没有我们追求的经济繁荣，没有社会安定，最重要的是，无法让我们成为如今这样令世人羡慕的国家。

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