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•歐巴馬(Barack Obama)的競選連任之路剛開始呈現出順風順水的態勢。總統下令發起的大膽突襲讓奧薩馬•本•拉登(Osama bin Laden)葬身印度洋海底。國內經濟前景有所好轉。最有利的或許是，共和黨貌似沉溺於集體求死的狀態之中，把唐納•川普(Donald Trump)推上了民調中人氣最高的位置，並把衆議員保羅•瑞安(Paul Ryan)的預算削減提案列爲立法議程的第一項。共和黨內總統競選人的初期爭奪戰就在一羣僞保守派之間展開，在他們看來，減稅似乎易如反掌，而現任總統不過是異邦人士——在外國出生、穆斯林、集體主義者——隨便你怎麼叫都行。