课程正文

I find it helpful to contrast the real America, the place we actually live, with what I think of as “Senate America,” the hypothetical nation implied by a simple average across states, which is what the Senate in effect represents.

As I said, real America is mainly metropolitan; Senate America is still largely rural.

Real America is racially and culturally diverse; Senate America is still very white.

Real America includes large numbers of highly educated adults; Senate America, which underweights the dynamic metropolitan areas that attract highly educated workers, has a higher proportion of non-college people, and especially non-college whites.

None of this is meant to denigrate rural, non-college, white voters. We’re all Americans, and we all deserve an equal voice in shaping our national destiny. But as it is, some of us are more equal than others. And that poses a big problem in an era of deep partisan division.

Not to put too fine a point on it: What Donald Trump and his party are selling increasingly boils down to white nationalism — hatred and fear of darker people, with a hefty dose of anti-intellectualism plus anti-Semitism, which is always part of that cocktail. This message repels a majority of Americans. That’s why Tuesday’s election in the House — which despite gerrymandering and other factors is far more representative of the country as a whole than the Senate — produced a major Democratic wave.

But the message does resonate with a minority of Americans. These Americans are, of course, white, and are more likely than not to reside outside big, racially diverse metropolitan areas — because racial animosity and fear of immigration always seem to be strongest in places where there are few nonwhites and hardly any immigrants. And these are precisely the places that have a disproportionate role in choosing senators.

So what happened Tuesday, with Republicans getting shellacked in the House but gaining in the Senate, wasn’t just an accident of this year’s map or specific campaign issues. It reflected a deep division in culture, indeed values, between the American citizenry at large and the people who get to choose much of the Senate.

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重点词汇

contrast ['kɒntrɑːst] v. 形成对照；n. 反差

contrast A with : A和B之间的比较;

contrast between the poor and the rich：贫富差异

by contrast：与之形成强烈反差的是

in contrast with/to：用于承接一前一后的反差

hypothetical [.haɪpə'θetɪk(ə)l] adj. 假设的；假定的

hypotherical situation：假设的场景

hypothetical question：假设的问题

bring up a hypothetical case：提出一个假设的例子

imply [ɪm'plaɪ] v. 暗示

类似于suggest;

denigrate ['denɪ.ɡreɪt] v. 诋毁；贬低

该词来自拉丁语，由“de（表示否定）+niger（黑）”构成；

say things to make someone or something seem less important or good

people who denigrate their own country：贬损自己国家的人

destiny ['destəni] n. 命运

类似于fate；

partisan [.pɑː(r)tɪ'zæn] adj. 党派的；n. （对某政党的）死忠分子，强硬派

adj: stongly supporting a particular party, plan or leader, usually without considering the other choises carefully;

partisan division：党派分化

n: someone who strongly support a party or a leader;

highly partisan：高度党派化/选边站的人

boil down 熬干；归结出（某事物核心）

cook until very limited liquid is left

hefty dose  大量

a hefty fine：巨额罚款

a hefty dose of sth：大量的

anti-intellectualism [ˌæntɪˌɪntə'lektʃəlɪzəm] n. 反智主义

intellectual：知识分子；智力

anti-Semitism [ˌænti 'semətɪzəm] n. 反犹主义

Semitic：犹太人，Jews的另一种说法

repel [rɪ'pel] v. 排斥（类似refuse）；使人厌恶，使人反感

two positive charges repel each other：两个正电荷相互排斥

if something repels you, it is so unpleasant that you don't want to be near it or it makes you feel ill

the smell repels her：这股气味让她反感

gerrymander ['dʒerimændə(r)] v. 不公正地划分（选区）

该词来自19世纪初美国马萨诸萨邦州长Elbridge Gerry和“salamander，蝾螈”；

resonate ['rezəneɪt] v. 引起共鸣

resonate with someone：与谁产生共鸣

animosity [.ænɪ'mɒsəti] n. 憎恶；仇恨

animus/hostility：n. 敌意

racial animosity/racial hostility：种族仇恨

shellack ['ʃelæk] v. 轻易击败

completely beat

citizenry ['sɪtɪz(ə)nri] n. 全体公民

all citizens in a particular town, country or state