Mark Peterson for The New York Times
On Wednesday, the charmless and awkward Ron DeSantis entered the presidential race. In 2024 Republican primary polling, he consistently comes in second to Donald Trump. He has built his legend on an easy re-election as Florida’s governor and an easy route by which he enacted a slate of bullying and regressive “anti-woke” legislation, thanks to Republicans’ supermajorities in Florida’s Legislature.
周三，毫无魅力、笨拙不堪的罗恩·德桑蒂斯加入了总统竞选。在2024年共和党初选民调中，他一直排在唐纳德·特朗普之后。他轻松连任佛罗里达州州长，并且由于共和党在佛罗里达州立法机构中占绝对多数，他轻松制定了一系列蛮横和倒退的“反觉醒”立法，从而建立了自己的传奇。
He brandishes his record as evidence of his effectiveness, but all he’s done is win a series of fights in which his opponents had their hands tied by being in the minority.
他挥舞着这些战绩来证明自己的能力，但他所做的一切只是赢得了一系列战斗，在这些战斗中，他的对手因为处于少数而被束手束脚。
Yet many Republican commentators and donors, who’ve been desperate to move on from the toxicity of Trump, landed on DeSantis when casting about for alternatives. They inflated his ego, convincing him his big-footing in Florida made him formidable.
然而，许多急于摆脱特朗普负面影响的共和党评论员和捐助者在寻找替代人选时把目光投向了德桑蒂斯。这令他自我膨胀，让他相信自己在佛罗里达州大摇大摆的行为让他变得强大。
He appears to be banking on Trump fatigue, or maybe Trump’s legal problems piling so high that even the former president’s most ardent supporters come to the conclusion that he is too encumbered to prevail. If he can’t outpace Trump, he’ll lie in wait to catch him limping.
他似乎寄希望于特朗普会疲劳，或者特朗普的法律问题堆积如山，以至于连这位前总统最热心的支持者都会得出结论，认为他难以脱身获胜。如果他不能超过特朗普，他会蛰伏起来，等待特朗普露出破绽。
He’s not alone in that lane. The candidates (or potential candidates) Mike Pence, Asa Hutchinson and Chris Sununu — all current or former governors — occupy the same lane. They are the in-case-of-emergency-break-glass cohort: If Trump winds up on the path to prison and Republicans must scrounge for a last-minute replacement, they’re hoping that voters see them as solid substitutes.
选择这条路线的不止他一个。候选人（或潜在候选人）迈克·彭斯、阿萨·哈钦森和克里斯·苏努努——他们都是现任或前任州长——也是这么想的。他们都属于应急方案：如果特朗普最终走上锒铛入狱之路，共和党人必须在最后一刻寻找替代者，这些人希望选民把自己视为可靠的替代品。
They’re positioned as candidates who can deliver on Republican policy priorities without Trump’s baggage and Trump’s drama — but Trump’s drama is the thing that many of his supporters are addicted to. The policies are welded to the persona.
他们被定位为能够实现共和党政策优先事项的候选人，但却没有特朗普的包袱，以及他的戏剧性——但这正是他的许多支持者所迷恋的东西。政策已经与人格融为一体。
Trump allows his supporters to feel and express their full range of emotion: He entertains them; he channels their rage; he reflects their oppressive urges; he’s an oracle of their self-perceived victimhood and their model of a warrior against a government and culture that they feel are turning on them.
特朗普允许他的支持者去感受并表达出自己的全部情感：他取悦他们；他疏导他们的愤怒；他反映了他们压抑的欲望；他深深理解他们自封的受害者身份；他们觉得政府和文化正在跟他们做对，而他是反抗这一切的模范战士。
Trumpism is a whole-self experience, spiritual in its depth, so Trumpism without Trump would be akin to preaching Christianity without Christ.
特朗普主义是一种完整的自我体验，是一种深度的精神体验，所以，没有特朗普的特朗普主义就像是没有基督的基督教。
And then there’s Republicans’ other lane, in which racial absolution without racial repentance is offered. It’s occupied by candidates of color who advance some version of this simplistic and opaque absolution: “America is not a racist country.”
共和党人的另一条路承诺可以在不做种族忏悔的情况下得到种族赦免。走在这条路上的那些有色人种候选人提出了某种简单而又令人费解的赦免：“美国不是一个种族主义国家。”
Let me be clear: Is every person in America racist? No. Is race the superseding consideration and determinant for all negative outcomes for people of color? No. But was racism a foundational principle of our country? Does racism still permeate American society and its institutions? Yes.
我们把话说清楚：所有美国人都是种族主义者吗？不是。种族是有色人种面临的所有负面结果的首要考虑因素和决定因素吗？不是。然而种族主义是我们国家的基本原则吗？种族主义是否仍然渗透在美国社会及其制度中？是的。
And racism abhors its own name; it hates to be called what it is.
种族主义厌恶自己的名字；它讨厌被这样称呼。
In recent election cycles, Republicans have embraced candidates who provided a version of that message — Herman Cain in 2012, Ben Carson in 2016 — even as their party has been rightly condemned for its tan-suit-faux-scandal-level anti-Barack Obama obsession, which was consistently colored by race.
在最近的几个选举周期中，共和党人支持了提供这种信息的候选人——2012年的赫尔曼·凯恩，2016年的本·卡森——尽管他们的政党因一贯执着反对贝拉克·奥巴马——连他穿灰褐色西装也要小题大做一番——而受到正确的谴责，对他的反对一贯带有种族主义色彩。
And now they have two candidates who’ve used those exact words: When she began her candidacy in February, Nikki Haley said, “Take it from me, the first minority female governor in history: America is not a racist country.” And when he announced his candidacy on Monday, Tim Scott — whom she appointed to his Senate seat — repeated a line he delivered in a 2021 speech: “America is not a racist country.”
现在，他们有两名候选人使用了同样的话：妮基·黑利在今年2月开始竞选时说，“作为有史以来第一个少数族裔女州长，听我一句：美国不是一个种族主义国家。”周一，被她指定接替参议院席位的蒂姆·斯科特宣布参选时，也重复了他在2021年演讲中说过的话：“美国不是一个种族主义国家。”
Scott’s policy positions — which straddle the Republican MAGA wing and the party’s limping Jack Kemp wing — are not his selling point. He sells a narrative, however distorted — a frozen smile for a fanatical party.
斯科特的政策立场——横跨共和党的“恢复美国伟大荣光”派和萎靡不振的杰克·肯普派——并不是他的卖点。他兜售的是一种叙事，无论多么扭曲——一个狂热政党的冰冷微笑。
Haley is also in this lane.
黑利也在这条路上。
She and Scott are using their own personal and political successes, not as exceptional examples of clearing hurdles, but to argue the height of the hurdles and to question the will of other runners.
她和斯科特没有把自己在个人和政治上的成功作为跨越障碍的特例，而是争辩这障碍也没多高，并质疑其他选手的意愿。
They, too, are probably waiting for legal lightning to strike, for Trump to become politically incapacitated and the Republican primary field to be thrown wide open.
他们可能也在等待法律的闪电来袭，等待特朗普失去政治资格，等待共和党的初选出现群雄逐鹿的局面。
But Trump will fight to the last breath, maybe not because he wants to be president again, but because he wants to hedge against becoming a prisoner.
但特朗普将拼到最后一刻，或许不是因为他想再次当总统，而是为了避免沦为阶下囚。
All the Republican challengers are governed by ambition, but Trump is now governed by a more powerful force: panic.
在共和党内，所有的挑战者都受到野心的支配，但现在支配特朗普的是一股更强大力量：恐慌。
Yes, if he is elected again, he will get to claim that in the end he bested Biden. But he’s also aware that if he regains the presidency, he regains the power to blunt pending federal investigations swirling around him and to force a crisis over any state criminal proceedings, like one that may materialize in Georgia.
是的，如果再次当选，他将声称自己最终击败了拜登。但他也意识到，如果重新当选总统的话，他将会重获权力来削弱围绕他的未决联邦调查，并迫使所有州刑事诉讼陷入危机，就像乔治亚州可能发生的那样。
He wants to complicate any potential prosecutions by arousing the anger of his followers, giving rule-of-law-following institutionalists pause about the consequences of penalizing a president. Trump has shown that he has no qualms about breaking the country to save himself, that patriotism is a distant second to self-preservation.
他希望通过激起追随者的愤怒，让遵循法治的制度主义者对惩罚总统的后果产生犹豫，从而使任何可能的起诉变得复杂。特朗普已经表明，他会毫不犹豫地为了自救而破坏国家，爱国远不及自保。
Trump has spent his life swaddled in creature comforts, gilded and gauche as they may be. He’s bent the rules so often that he seems to have forgotten that the legal system has a gravity that few can escape forever.
特朗普从小养尊处优，不愁荣华富贵。他经常为所欲为，以至于似乎忘记了几乎没有人能永远摆脱法律系统的引力。
Now, with the prospect of being shamed and maybe even shackled, he’s going to spare nothing in his quest to clear the Republican field — and none of his opponents look as if they’re ready for it.
现在，面对可能受到羞辱甚至带上手铐的可能性，他将不遗余力地清除党内障碍——而他在共和党内的对手，似乎都没有做好准备。
If you thought the last two election cycles were ugly, strap up: This one will likely be worse. All creatures are most ferocious when backed into a corner.
如果你认为过去两个选举周期都很丑陋，那准备好了：这一次可能会更烂。无论什么飞禽走兽，在被逼到死角的时候，都是最凶猛的。
Charles Blow自1994年加入时报，2008年开始成为专栏作者。他也是一名电视评论员，主要关注政治、社会公正和脆弱群体。欢迎在Twitter和Facebook上关注他。
翻译：晋其角、杜然
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