奥巴马的遗产（中）
When I read the transcript of the nomination speech I saw with my mother-in-law on the south side that night in 2008, I realised he had quoted Martin Luther King but declined to mention him by name, referring to him instead as the “old preacher”.
读到我和岳母2008年芝加哥南区聆听的奥巴马提名演讲文本，我才知道奥巴马引用了马丁·路德·金的话，可没有提到金的名字，只将他成为“老传教士”。
“If a black candidate can’t quote Martin Luther King by name,” I thought, “who can they quote?” I jokingly referred to him as the “incognegro”.
“如果一个黑人候选人不能提马丁·路德·金的名字，他还能引用谁呢？”我开玩笑说他是个“匿名黑人”。
译注：incognegro是美国嘻哈歌手Ludacris的一张专辑，由incognito（隐姓埋名的）和negro（黑人）缩合而成。
Obama never promised radical change and, given the institutions in which he was embedded, he was never going to be in a position to deliver it. You don’t get to become president of the United States without raising millions from very wealthy people and corporations (or being a billionaire yourself), who will turn against you if you don’t serve their interests.
奥巴马从未承诺推行剧烈变革，考虑到他所处的体制，他也从未打算推动这种变革。要不是从豪门巨富手中募集到上千万美元的资金，你就没法当上美国总统，除非你自己是亿万富翁。因此如果你不为他们的利益服务，他们会起来反对你。
Congress, with which Obama spars, is similarly corrupted by money. Seats in the House of Representatives are openly and brazenly gerrymandered.
和奥巴马龃龉不断的国会同样被金钱腐蚀。获得众议院的席位需要堂而皇之地弄虚作假。
译注：gerrymander指为一党私利而不公正地重新将划分选区。
This excuses Obama nothing. On any number of fronts, particularly the economy, the banks and civil liberties, he could have done more, or better. He recognised this himself, and in 2011, shortly before his second election, produced a list of issues he felt he’d been holding back on: immigration reform, poverty, the Middle East, Guantánamo Bay and gay marriage.
可这无法为奥巴马开脱。在许多方面，尤其经济、银行和人权，他可以做的更多、做得更好。他自己也认识到这一点。2011年，第二次参加选举前不久，他列出一揽子他认为自己拖延下来的事：移民改革、贫困、中东、关塔那摩监狱和同性恋婚姻。
By 2011, even those closest to Obama could see he was losing not only his base but his raison d’être as an agent of change. “You were seen as someone who would walk through the wall for the middle class,” his senior adviser David Axelrod told him that year. “We need to get back to that.”
到2011年，奥巴马最亲近的人都发现他不仅失去了执政基础，作为变革者存在的理由也没有了。奥巴马高级顾问戴维·阿里克谢罗德对我说：“以前你被视作能帮助中产阶级穿过那堵墙，我们需要回到那种想法上去。”
Back then, Obama’s prospects looked slim. His campaign second time around was a far cry from the euphoria of the first. The president’s argument boiled down to: “Things were terrible when I came to power, are much better than they would have been were I not in power, and will get worse if I am removed from power.” What started as “Yes we can” had curdled into “Could be worse”.
连任竞选和第一次当选时的欢欣可谓天差地别，那时的奥巴马希望渺茫。总统的论点归结为：“我执政之初国家一团糟，要不是我当政，事情怎么会像现在一样变得好起来呢？如果不让我干了，事情将会更糟糕。”是什么让事情从“是的，我们能”沉淀为“将会更糟糕”。
But .
可奥巴马总是幸运的，他的对手更蠢。
The Republican party effectively undermined and humiliated their nominee, , who then proved a terrible candidate. In 2012, I went to vote with Howard Davis, the man I’d met weeping at a Chicago polling station back in 2008, who voted Obama again. There were no tears this time. In the words of Sade, it’s never as good as the first time.
共和党有效地毁掉并羞辱了他们的提名人罗姆尼，他真是个糟糕的候选者。2012年，我和霍华德·戴维斯去投票，后者就是2008年在芝加哥选举站前哭泣的男人，他再次投了奥巴马。这次却没有泪水，用法国作家萨德的话说，永远都是第一次最好。
As Obama comes to the end of his tenure, we are no longer confined to discussing what it means that he is president; we can now talk in definite terms about what Obama did.
奥巴马即将卸任，我们不再讨论他作为总统意味着什么，我们可以用确切的话谈论奥巴马干了些什么。
Indulging the symbolic promise of a moment is one thing; engaging with the substantial record of more than seven years in power is quite another.
沉迷于片刻的象征性承诺是一码事，思考七年多当政的实绩则是全然不同的另一码事。
Everybody has their list. None is definitive. Obama withdrew US soldiers from Iraq (only to resume bombing later), , , reached and .
每个人都有自己的看法，没人能一锤定音。奥巴马让美国士兵撤出伊拉克（随后又恢复了轰炸），缓解对古巴关系，斩首本拉登，和伊朗达成核协议，广泛提升了美国在世界上的地位。
Twenty million uninsured adults now have health insurance because of . Unemployment was 7.8% and rising when he came to power; today, it is 4.9% and falling.
在奥巴马医改的帮助下，2000万没有保险的成年人现在拥有了健康保险。他当选时失业率高达7.8%，今天失业率4.9%，且还在下降。
He indefinitely , and expanded that protection to children who entered the country illegally with their parents (). ; .
他无限期推迟将子女是美国公民或合法居民的父母驱逐出境，增强了对与父母一起非法入境儿童的保护（梦想法案）。风能和太阳能将增长三倍，汽车业得救。
He eventually . He appointed two women to the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina.
最后，他强力支持枪支管控。他在最高法院任命了两名女性，艾莉娜·卡甘和索尼娅·索托美亚，后者还是第一个拉美裔。
When those on the left question Obama’s progressive bona fides, this is generally the list that is read back by his defenders – as though when he asks, “What have the Romans ever done for us?”
要是左翼人士质疑奥巴马支持进步主义的诚意，这正是奥巴马支持者通常要念的清单，好像模仿约翰·克里斯在《布莱恩的一生》中的问题：“罗马人对我们做过些什么？”
译注：《布莱恩的一生》讲述在罗马统治下的巴勒斯坦，一个普通男人因为参与反罗马的地下组织而被误认为是弥赛亚（犹太人企盼的复国救主），并最终被施以十字架刑的滑稽故事。
There are, of course, other facts to contend with. Obama escalated fighting in Afghanistan and ; ; used the 1917 Espionage Act ; oversaw (not to mention Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere), resulting in between 1,900 and 3,000 deaths, including more than 100 civilians; executed US citizens without trial; saw and grow as ; led his party to .
当然，也有许多其他可供争辩的事实。奥巴马升级了阿富汗战争，现在军队还驻扎在那里；他驱逐的人比所有历史上的总统都多；他使用1917年的间谍法案指控告密者，数量比所有前总统执政期间总和的两倍还多；他指挥的无人机打击在巴基斯坦增长了700%（更别提也门、索马里和其他地区），这导致1900人到3000人死亡，其中包括100多平民；他未经审判处决美国公民；见证了财富不平等和收入不平等加剧，公司利润相反暴增；他让民主党在中期选举中遭遇历史性惨败。
In Syria, he drew a red line in the sand and then claimed he hadn’t; he said he wouldn’t put boots on the ground, and then he did.
在叙利亚，他在沙子上划了一道红线，却声称自己没有。他说不会让地面部队到那里去，结果还是去了。
The discrepancies between Obama’s campaign promises and his record in office have been most glaring on . “This administration puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we provide,” he said as a candidate on 1 August 2007.
在人权事务方面，奥巴马的竞选承诺和执政记录之间的差距是最昭然的。“政府在我们珍视的自由和提供的安全之间提出错误的选择。”2007年8月1日，作为总统候选人的他说。
“You can’t have 100% security and then 100% privacy and zero inconvenience,” he said on 7 June 2013, during . “We’re going to have to make some choices.”
“你没法同时提供100%的安全以及100%的隐私和绝对的自由自在。”2013年6月7日他在斯诺登事件中改了口。“我们必须做出一些选择。”
And finally, there are the things Obama didn’t do. He didn’t ; he didn’t pursue in connection with the 2007/8 crash; he didn’t .
最后，奥巴马还有未完成的任务。他没有任命独立的酷刑调查情报官，也没有任命独立的金融执行官以改进07、08年金融危机中暴露出来的弊病，他也没有关闭关塔那摩监狱。
But a legacy is not a ledger. It is both less substantial than a list of things done, and more meaningful.
可遗产毕竟不是分类账本，它没有清单那么实实在在，却更有意义。
“At some point in Jackie Robinson’s career, the point ceases to be how many hits he got or bases he stole,” , who played a leading role in both Obama campaigns, tells me. “As great and important as all these stats were, there was a bigger picture.”
“在棒球手杰基·罗宾森职业生涯的某个阶段，重要的不再是得多少分或偷多少垒。”两次奥巴马竞选的领导角色米奇·史都华告诉我。“这些统计数字伟大且重要，但还有更重要的东西。”
Legacies are about what people feel as well as what they know, about the present as much as the past. Aesthetically, there has always been something retro about Obama’s public profile. The original campaign posters announcing “Hope” and “Change”; the black-and-white video clips in .
遗产是人们对你的感觉和他们记得你什么，有关现在，也有关过去。从审美意义上讲，奥巴马的公众形象有点复古。最初的竞选海报声言“希望”和“变革”，从威.廉.姆.的黑白视频中可见一斑。
https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=t0013z4owjd&width=500&height=375&auto=0
With his family at his side, his brand offered not glamour exactly, but chic. Like John F Kennedy, he projected an image that enough Americans either wanted or needed, or both: a young, good-looking family, a bright future. He offered Camelot without the castle: no ties to the old, all about the future.
和家人站在一起，他的形象倒并非魅力，而是时髦。像约翰·F·肯尼迪一样，他塑造了足够多的美国人想要或者需要或者两者兼有的形象：年轻漂亮的家人和光明的未来。他给予了没有城堡的卡米洛特，没有过去的牵绊，全系关乎未来。
译注：卡米洛特，英国传说中亚瑟王的宫殿所在之地。
Photographs of Obama at the White House suggest both he and Michelle grew into this role quite happily. Whether it was or and chasing toddlers around the Oval office, they returned a sense of playful normality to the White House: an unforced conviviality that did not detract from the gravity of office.
奥巴马在白宫的照片显示他和米歇尔都相当幸福地进入角色。无论米歇尔和孩子们在白宫草坪上跳舞，还是奥巴马在椭圆办公室向宝宝做鬼脸，和婴儿追逐嬉戏，他们把人间喜乐带回白宫：这种自然而然的欢欣并不能逃离办公室的沉重。
“It’s important to remember that he was more recently a normal person than most people at that level,” one veteran member of his team told me. “For the 2000 convention, he couldn’t even get a floor credential. In 2004, he introduced the presidential nominee. In 2008, he was the nominee. It’s tough to see him and Michelle, and not give him that benefit of the doubt. He’s had small kids in the White House. I think people will remember that as a moment and an era.”
“他和在那个位置的人相比，他一直是个普通人，记住这一点很重要。”过去奥巴马团队的一名成员告诉我。“2000年大选时，他连一张门票都没有，2004年，他介绍了总统提名人。2008年，他自己成为提名人。看看他和米歇尔，很难不去相信他，尽管你还有所怀疑。他在白宫里把孩子带大，我认为人们会记住这个时刻和这个时代的。”
When Virginia McLaurin, a 106-year-old African American woman, was granted her lifelong dream to visit the White House earlier this year, the president and his wife . “Slow down now, don’t go too fast,” Obama joked.
当106岁的非裔美国人弗吉尼亚·麦克拉伦今年初圆了一生的白宫梦，总统和第一夫人和她在白宫情不自禁地跳舞。“现在慢一点，别太快。”奥巴马开玩笑说。
“I thought I would never live to get in the White House,” McLaurin said, looking up at her hosts. “I am so happy. A black president, a black wife, and I’m here to celebrate black history.”
麦克劳伦说：“我以为我这一生去不了白宫了，我太幸福了，一个黑人总统，黑人第一夫人，我在这里庆祝黑人的历史。”
Legacies are never settled; they are constantly evolving. A few years before he died, almost , because of his stance against the Vietnam war and in favour of the redistribution of wealth.
遗产永远不是一成不变的，遗产在不断演变。马丁·路德·金去世前的几年中，近三分之二的美国人反对他，因为他反对越战，支持财富再分配。
Yet within a generation, his birthday was a national holiday; when Americans ranked the most admired public figures of the 20th century in 1999, .
可仅一代人时间，他的生日成了国家节日，1999年被美国人列为20世纪最受尊敬的公众人物之一，仅次于修女特蕾莎。
Ronald Reagan is now hailed as a conservative hero, even though and massively inflated the government deficit. During the final year of Bill Clinton’s presidency, most guessed that his legacy would be one of scandal. Instead, he was hailed for presiding over a sustained economic recovery.
罗纳德·里根被尊为保守主义英雄，尽管大支持对非法移民实施大赦，并大规模提高政府赤字。比尔·克林顿总统生涯的最后一年，大多数人认为他的遗产就是丑闻。相反，他因主导经济的可持续复苏而受誉。
But as , he has had to recant key parts of that legacy – the crime bill, welfare reform, financial deregulation – those elements which have disproportionately impoverished African Americans and enriched the banks.
当他的妻子谋求民主党总统提名时，他不得不为那个遗产中的重要部分而公开道歉：犯罪法案、福利改革、金融失范，这些尤其让非裔美国人致贫，却肥富了银行。
“History will be a far kinder judge than the current Republican congress,” Stewart tells me. “It will rest on the untold successes that this administration has had. Energy efficiency, carbon efficiency. He reformed the student loan programme, which is going to have an impact on a generation of students. He’s catapulted the US forward in ways that will continue to pay dividends long after his presidency. His legacy will be about these smaller, unsung accomplishments that will have a generational impact.”
史华都对我说：“历史是一个比当下的共和党国会宽容许多的法官。他会以这一届政府数不尽的成功为基础——节能、低碳。奥巴马改革了学生贷款计划，这将对一代人产生影响。他推动美国的长足进步，在他卸任多年后还将带来益处。他的遗产是那些被埋没了的小成就，却将产生跨越代际的影响。”