Just a few weeks ago, Barack Obama’s re-election bid was beginning to look like an easy downhill jog. The daring raid that the president ordered delivered Osama bin Laden to the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Economic prospects looked brighter. Perhaps most helpfully, the Republican party seemed to be indulging in some kind of collective death-wish, putting Donald Trump first in the polls and Representative Paul Ryan’s budget cutting at the top of its legislative agenda. The GOP’s early presidential skirmishing took place in a land of conservative make-believe, where tax cuts grow on trees and the president can be described as any sort of alien – foreign-born, Muslim, collectivist – that one chooses.
就在幾周前，巴拉克?奧巴馬(Barack Obama)的競選連任之路剛開始呈現(xiàn)出順風(fēng)順?biāo)膽B(tài)勢。總統(tǒng)下令發(fā)起的大膽突襲讓奧薩馬?本?拉登(Osama bin Laden)葬身印度洋海底。國內(nèi)經(jīng)濟(jì)前景有所好轉(zhuǎn)。最有利的或許是，共和黨貌似沉溺于集體求死的狀態(tài)之中，把唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)推上了民調(diào)中人氣最高的位置，并把眾議員保羅?瑞安(Paul Ryan)的預(yù)算削減提案列為立法議程的第一項。共和黨內(nèi)總統(tǒng)競選人的初期爭奪戰(zhàn)就在一群偽保守派之間展開，在他們看來，減稅似乎易如反掌，而現(xiàn)任總統(tǒng)不過是異邦人士——在外國出生、穆斯林、集體主義者——隨便你怎么叫都行。