紐時賞析／「保衛多元文化」不再管用？川普返白宮 美民主黨苦尋出路

In Wilderness, Party Searches For a Way Out

大環境巨變 美民主黨苦尋出路

The Democratic Party is having an identity crisis about identity politics.

民主黨在身分認同政治面臨身分認同危機。

Just weeks into the Trump administration, Democrats are grappling with how to stand up for diversity and defend marginalized groups that have come under assault from the White House, without allowing their party to be defined or marginalized by those fights.

川普政府上任僅數周，民主黨人正努力思考如何維護多元化，以及保護已受到白宮攻擊的邊緣群體，同時不讓那些鬥爭定義和邊緣化他們的政黨。

President Donald Trump has pushed to make DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — a dirty word, racing to unravel diversity programs across the federal government at remarkable speed. At the same time, he has made a series of aggressive moves against transgender rights, including calling gender care for trans youths “chemical and surgical mutilation,” ordering transgender women in federal prisons to be transferred to men’s prisons and banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.

總統川普極力將DEI，即多元、平等和包容，變成不受歡迎的字眼，並以驚人的速度破壞聯邦政府的多元化專案。同時，他已針對跨性別權利採取了一系列激進舉措，包括稱針對跨性別年輕人的性別照護是「化學和外科手術殘害」，及下令將聯邦監獄中的跨性別女性轉移到男子監獄，並禁止跨性別運動員參加女子體育。

But Democrats are struggling to marshal an effective response. They are debating, publicly and privately, when to push back, how to push back and what, exactly, to push back on.

民主黨人正努力設想有效的應對方法。他們公開和私下辯論何時反擊、如何反擊，及實際上要反擊什麼。

Some are saying that almost no instances of discrimination — especially rank racism — should go unanswered. Others are pressing the party to be more selective and engage only in cultural battles that are winnable. And still others are urging the party to avoid identity politics altogether — even when Republicans seem to be opening themselves up to a fierce counterattack.

有些人表示，幾乎所有歧視事件都不應沒有回應，特別是嚴重種族歧視。其他人敦促民主黨更加嚴格篩選參與事件，只參與能獲勝的文化戰爭。還有人敦促民主黨完全避談身分認同政治—即使是在共和黨人似乎正投身準備面對猛烈反擊。

“The party is flailing,” said Rashad Robinson, who recently stepped aside after years of leading Color of Change, a progressive civil rights group.

羅賓遜說：「民主黨正搖搖欲墜。」他領導進步派民權團體「變革之色」數年，於近期讓賢。

For years, Democrats believed they held the moral and political high ground in defending the value of a diverse and multicultural America. Trump’s exploitation of racial grievances, they assumed, would inevitably lead him to a demographic dead end, by capping his appeal to the growing nonwhite population. But the 2024 election upended those assumptions, as Trump not only won the White House but also improved his standing among nonwhite voters.

多年來，民主黨人認為他們在保衛多元價值和美國多元文化方面，占據道德和政治制高點。他們想當然地認為，川普利用種族怨懟，會損害他在日漸增長的非白人群體的票房，必將把他帶往人口結構所造成的困境。但2024年大選顛覆了那些假設，川普不僅贏得白宮大位，他在非白人選民間的得票也增加。

Now Democrats are in a period of reassessment.

現在民主黨人正處於重新評估時期。

Robinson urged his party not to “give up on identifying and eliminating discrimination, any more than we can give up on getting lead out of water.” But he argued that Democrats needed to recalibrate their arguments about diversity to focus on demonstrating the practical benefits of having people of color in the room for key decisions.

羅賓遜敦促他的政黨不要「放棄鑑別和消除歧視，就像我們不能放棄去除水中的鉛一樣」。但他主張，民主黨人需重新調整關於多樣性的論點，專注展現有色人種參與關鍵決策的實際好處。

“If we make the case simply through a moral lens, we will lose,” Robinson said. “Right now, we have to make the business case.”

羅賓遜表示：「如果我們僅透過道德角度提出論點，我們會輸。現在，我們必須提出實務層面的論點。」

文／Shane Goldmacher　譯／羅方妤

說文解字看新聞

【張佑生】

有學者說，所謂的「認同政治」（identity politics），重點不在於認同，而在政治。中文全名「身分認同政治」，是指在社會上，人群因性別、人種、民族、宗教、性取向等集體的共同利益而展開的政治活動。

民主黨輸掉白宮和國會兩院，紐時導言開宗明義指出，民主黨對認同政治正經歷認同危機，政黨的市場定位不明，不再吸引選民。

Identity（認同／身分），都是可以被政治操作的。多年來自由派高舉的「政治正確」(political correctness)及衍生而出的DEI大纛，遭到川普汙名化(a dirty word)。

民主黨亟欲反擊，marshal有謀定後動、統率集結的意味：to marshal your arguments/thoughts/facts. 或The general marshal(l)ed his forces for a major offensive.

本期另選奧許維茨集中營解放80周年文章，地名譯自德文Auschwitz，波蘭原文Oświęcim，發音近奧許維欽，中文慣用奧斯威辛，周報從俗。