奥巴马的遗产（下）

Yes, he tried: what will Barack Obama's legacy be?

Paradoxically, the element of Obama’s legacy for which he will be best remembered – being the first black president – relates to an area that has seen little substantial headway: racial equality. The , as has ; black income has stagnated. 

矛盾的是，作为第一位黑人总统是奥巴马最值得铭记的遗产，可在种族平等方面他取得的实质进步最少。黑人和白人的财富差距拉大，失业率差距和黑人贫困同样加剧，黑人收入停滞。

That’s not to suggest he has done nothing. He has , , . Anything he did that helped the poor, like Obamacare, will disproportionately help African Americans.

这并不是说他无所作为，他任命的黑人法官数量史无前例，释放了数千名非暴力瘾君子，降低了贩卖霹雳粉和粉末可卡因的刑期差异。他帮助穷人的努力，如奥巴马医疗，都将更大程度地帮助美国黑人。

But, broadly speaking, . The fact that he could be president challenged how African Americans saw their country. The fact that their lives did not radically improve as a result did not shift their understanding of how America works. 

但总体说来，奥巴马的反种族歧视遗产是象征性而非实质性的。他能当总统，这挑战了非裔美国人对他们国家的看法。他们的生活并未因此显著提升，这一事实并未转变他们对美国运转方式的理解。

When he was contemplating a run for the White House, his wife asked him what he thought he could accomplish if he won. “The day I take the oath of office,” he replied, “the world will look at us differently. And millions of kids across this country will look at themselves differently. That alone is something.”

他考虑角逐白宫时，妻子问他，如果成功，想实现什么目标。“我宣誓就职之日，在世界眼中我们就有所不同了。全国数百万儿童看待自己也不同了。这本身就是了不起的事。”

The imagery did not, in the end, translate quite so neatly. True, when  in 2012, Obama was able to say what no other president could have said: “Trayvon Martin could have been my son.”

可到头来，这一图景并未完全实现。没错，2012年，当特雷沃恩·马丁被乔治·齐默尔曼射杀时，奥巴马能说其它总统不会说的话：“特雷沃恩·马丁应该是我的儿子。”

Nonetheless, it is unlikely that Zimmerman looked at Trayvon and thought, “There goes the future president of America.” Thanks to Obama, Americans see racism differently; they do not, however, view black people differently.

然而，齐默尔曼不可能在看到特雷沃恩时想：“这是未来的美国总统。”因为奥巴马，美国人对种族主义有了不同的看法；然而，他们眼中的黑人和以往没有什么不同。

Obama will leave office during a period of heightened racial tension over police shootings. “His presidency was supposed to pass into an era of post-racism and colour blindness,” Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Princeton professor and author of , tells me. 

奥巴马将在因警察频繁开枪而导致的种族紧张气氛中结束其任期。普林斯顿大学教授、《从“黑人的命也是命”到黑人自由》一书作者基昂加-雅玛塔·泰勒说：“奥巴马当选曾被认为开启了后种族主义和肤色无差别的时代。”

“Yet it was under his administration that  erupted. In many ways, it’s the most significant anti-racist movement in the last 40 years, and it happens under the first black president. ”

“可正是在他当政期间，‘黑人的命也是命’运动爆发。在很多方面，这是过去四十年最有意义的反种族歧视运动，就发生在第一个黑人总统期间。”

"The eruption of this movement can be interpreted as a disappointment in the limitations of the Barack Obama presidency. And some of those limitations can be explained externally, by the hostility with which he’s been met by the mostly Republican congress. But some of it lies in the limitations of his own policies."

“运动的爆发可以被理解为对坡脚奥巴马政府的失望。有些局限性可以从外部加以解释，如多数共和党议会对他的敌意，但有些则是其自身政策出了问题。”

Over the past couple of years, the #BlackLivesMatter debate has taken place almost without reference to Obama. It suggests that, on one level, his relationship to some of the key issues surrounding black life is almost ornamental.

过去几年中，“黑人的命也是命”的争论几乎没有提及奥巴马。这在一个层面上说明，他与关乎黑人生命的某些重要问题的关系多半是装饰性的。

He is the framed poster in the barbershop or the nail salon, the mural on the underpass, the picture in the diner or bodega – an aspiration not to be mistaken for the attrition of daily life.

他是理发馆或美甲店上的带框海报、地下通道里的壁画、餐车或小杂货铺里的照片——一种绝不会和柴米油盐搞混的抱负。

The question as to whether America can elect a black president has been answered; the issue of the sanctity of black life, however, has yet to be settled.

美国是否会选出一位黑人总统这一问题已经得到解答，然而黑人生命的尊严仍然无处安放。

At the Col Ballroom in Davenport, Iowa, on 29 January, it is difficult not to feel nostalgic. Built in 1914 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the chandeliers both illuminate and illustrate the regal atmosphere of an old music hall, while the posters bear witness to the greats who have played there, from Duke Ellington to Jimi Hendrix.

1月29日，爱荷华州达文波特考尔厅，这里让人怀旧。这所1914年的建筑被列为国家历史文物，枝形吊灯照亮了音乐厅，颇具皇家气度，海报见证着在这里演奏过的伟人，从钢琴家艾灵顿公爵到吉他演奏大师吉米·亨德里克斯。

So when the swing band stops playing and Bill Clinton steps on stage to present his wife, Hillary, the sense that you have stepped back in time feels complete. Hillary has become a far more animated candidate since she lost to Obama here eight years ago. 

摇摆乐队停止演奏，比尔·克林顿登台引荐了他的妻子希拉里，洋溢着回到过去的感觉。八年前输给了奥巴马，希拉里现在是最有前景的总统候选人。

Heather Johnson, a precinct captain whose job is to rally support in her area, has been knocking on doors, calling supporters and galvanising the local faithful for months now. 

选区区长西泽·约翰逊的工作就是在她的选区拜票，她几个月来挨家挨户敲门，召唤支持者的忠诚。

“After she lost last time, I decided, if she ran, I’d do everything I could to make sure she didn’t lose again,” she says. “Who else has her experience?”

“上次失败后，我决定如果她再选，我将竭尽一切让她不会再输。谁还有她这样的经验？”

It’s just a few days before the caucuses and this mostly older crowd is energised. But . She is seen as an insider, when the voters want change. 

当时距离党团初选只有几天时间，这些老铁杆们跃跃欲试。可希拉里的弱点和2008年一样，她被视作内部人，可选民要求改变。

She remains dogged by scandal – her emails sent via a private server – and voters find her untrustworthy. She promises progress by increments, rather than transformation. She even tries to make a selling point of the fact that her platform is not exciting. 

她仍被丑闻缠身——通过私人服务器发邮件——选民认为她不可信。她承诺渐进性的进步而非变革。她甚至把她的议程并令人激动当卖点。

“I’d rather underpromise and overdeliver,” she tells the crowd. She is effectively running for Obama’s third term, asking for the opportunity to continue what he started.

“我宁愿少作承诺，多做实事。”她对人们说。她有效地延续了奥巴马第三任期，要求人们让她继续奥巴马开创的事业。

A few days earlier, at Grinnell College,  offered a younger crowd a future more radical and bold – free healthcare, no tuition fees, a $15-an-hour minimum wage – and a clear departure from a political culture corrupted by money and corporate influence. 

几天前，在格林奈尔学院，伯尼·桑德斯向更年轻的人们允诺了更彻底、更大胆的未来——免费医保、不收学费、每小时15美元最低工资，以及与被金钱和公司影响力腐败的政治文化分道扬镳。

Sanders has reservations about Obama’s legacy; he recently endorsed a book called . But on the stump he knows there is no mileage in criticising the president.

桑德斯对奥巴马的遗产有所保留：他最近力荐了一本书《买账者的懊悔：奥巴马如何让进步主义失望》。可站在讲台上的他明白，批评总统没什么好处。

This crowd likes Obama. His second term has been more sure-footed than his first. Following , when 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 20 schoolchildren, six adult staff, his mother and himself, Obama finally vowed to challenge the legislative inertia on gun control and has not stopped since. 

人们喜爱奥巴马，他的第二任更加踏实稳健。桑迪岬枪击案中，20岁的亚当·兰扎杀死两名儿童、六名成人员工以及自己的母亲后自杀，此来奥巴马宣布挑战枪控方面的立法惰性，迄今他还在行动。

As the Republicans have proven themselves incapable of compromise, Obama has felt more licence to stamp his authority on the political culture. A few months after the midterms, he signed the Dream Act; .

共和党人证明自己不能妥协，而奥巴马认为自己有权威改变政治文化。中期选举的几个月后，他签署了《梦想法案》；去年11月，他因环境担忧否决了从加拿大到墨西哥湾的基斯敦输油管线。

While other presidents use the lame duck portion of their tenure to get to work on their presidential libraries, Obama has been tying up loose ends. “He’ll be a blueprint for how you have a second term,” Mitch Stewart thinks. “Every day there is an hourglass mentality.”

其他总统在任期的坡脚鸭时段开始筹建总统图书馆 ，可奥巴马却完成他的收尾工作。米奇·史华都想：“他是该怎样做第二任总统的范本，他每天都有沙漏意识，”

Karen Sanchez, a 19-year-old Sanders supporter in Marshalltown, Iowa, tells me she thinks Obama has done a great job. “He did what he could. I think he would have done more, but they kept blocking him.” 

19岁的来自爱荷华州玛莎尔敦的桑德斯支持者凯伦·桑切斯告诉我，她认为奥巴马干得很棒。“他做了他能做的，我认为他可以做的更多，但他们不让他那样做。”

A Hillary supporter at an event in Adel, Iowa, who did not want to give her name, agreed. “He gave it his best shot,” she said. “I don’t think anyone could have done better when you’re up against people who just want to stonewall you.”

爱荷华州阿德尔城的一名不愿意透露姓名的希拉里支持者对此表示同意。她说：“他表现到最出色了，我觉得和想阻止你的人对抗，能做到他这样已经无人出其右了。”

This was the standard response at any Democrat event when I asked how people thought Obama would be remembered: effectively a phantom legacy. Not what he actually achieved, but what he might have achieved if the other side weren’t so unreasonable.

这是所有民主党活动上人们被问到将如何记住奥巴马时的标准答案：事实上，这是一种幽灵遗产：并非他真正做到了什么，而是如果不是对手如此非理性，他本应做到。

As endorsements go, this seemed like faint praise. Like the 1986 World Cup England might have won were it not for Maradona’s hand of God, or the Gore presidency that might have been were it not for hanging chads and the Supreme Court, the case for Obama’s legacy was the subjunctive – what might have been. Yes. We. Tried.

这看起来像是明褒实贬。就像在说如果不是马拉多纳的上帝之手，英格兰本可以1986年世界杯上获胜，或者若非没打干净的选票和最高法院裁决，戈尔应该当选总统。奥巴马的遗产也是虚拟语气，“本应如此”。没错，我们，努力了。

译注：hanging chads指戈尔和小布什对决中，戈尔认为计票存在问题。选民用打孔器在选举人票上打窟窿，有的圆型孔屑没有打干净还连在选票上，应该人工计票，但布什反对说曾经试图用人工来重新点算选票的几个县由于是用肉眼观看选票并决定该投票人选的是谁，所以衡量的标准差距很大，不能得出客观一致的结果。

But as the primary season has drawn on, what looked like a partial and qualified stamp of approval has been developing into something more complete and adulatory. Compared with the frontrunners, carnival barkers and showmen, Obama is starting to walk taller and appear smarter than ever.

可初选季临近，曾经看起来有所保留的支持发展成无条件的奉承。那些领先者不过是些嘉年华的吆喝者和玩杂耍的，与他们相比，奥巴马显得比以往都高大、睿智。

The day after a recent Republican debate, , “Trump Defends Size Of His Penis”, after Trump objected to Marco Rubio’s allusion that, because Trump had small hands, he has a small penis. “Look at these hands; are they small hands?” Trump asked a cheering crowd. “I guarantee you, there’s no problem.”

最近一次共和党辩论的第二天，CNN的标题是“Trump Defends Size Of His Penis”。此前特朗普反驳卢比奥的影射，后者认为他手小，所以那玩意也小。“看看我这双手，这是一双小手吗？”特朗普和欢呼的群众说：“我保证，我没问题。”

When the political tone is set this low, when so little is expected of the candidates and the choices are this poor, the fact that Obama tried – and the way that he tried – starts to eclipse the fact that he so often failed. Like a dutiful doctor, he performed triage on a reluctant patient and didn’t give up even when the prospects looked bleak. He did his job.

政治调子如此不堪，你很难想象候选者和他们的选择有多烂。奥巴马的努力和他努力的方式，这一事实正开始遮蔽他常常失败的事实。他像一个尽责的医生，给一个不愿接受治疗的病人验伤，在前景渺茫的情况下也没有放弃，他做了自己该做的事。

As his term comes to an end and the fractured, volatile nature of the country’s electoral politics is once again laid bare, Americans may be coming to realise that, in Obama, it had an adult in the room. As violence erupts at election rallies and spills over into the streets, they may come to appreciate the absence of scandal and drama from the White House. 

他任期将尽，这个国家分裂动荡的选举政治又一次暴露其外，美国人可能意识到，奥马巴才是屋子里的成年人。随着暴力在选举集会上爆发并泛溢到街道去，美国人应该感谢白宫没有丑闻，没有纸牌屋。

As their wages stagnated, industries collapsed, insecurities grew and hopes faded, he tried to get something done. Not much, not enough – but something. It is possible to have serious, moral criticisms of Obama and his legacy, and still appreciate his value.

他们的工资停滞、产业凋敝、不安全感上升、希望消逝，可奥巴马努力了。他的努力不太多，不太够，可他多少做了些事。对奥巴马和他的遗产进行严肃的道德批判，同时感谢他的价值，这是有可能的。

In Obama, Americans are losing someone who took both public service and the public seriously; someone who stood for something bigger and more important than himself. 

奥巴马要离开了，美国人正在失去一个认真地对待公共服务和公众的人，这个人支持某些比自己更广阔、更重要的事。

This is the end of the line for a leader who believed that facts mattered; that Americans were not fools; that their democracy meant something and that government had a role: that America could be better than this.

他是还相信事实说了算、相信美国人不是傻子、相信民主有意义、相信政府能发挥作用、相信美国可以变得更好的一个领导人，他的政治生涯结束了。