Away with your misgivings, says ‘Bob’. This is the real Trump
如何“推销”特朗普？
广州会议翻译公司:邰蒂：最近我在共和党要人聚餐上，听到了一套“推销”特朗普的说辞，既玩世不恭得让人恐惧，又天真得危险。
Earlier this month, I attended a delightful dinner in New York with a collection of Republican luminaries. Unsurprisingly, the conversation was dominated by the topic of Donald Trump — and many of those assembled were deeply anxious.
本月早些时候，我与共和党一众大人物一起在纽约共享了一顿愉快的晚餐。毫不意外，唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)主导了话题的中心——很多赴宴之人都对他感到深切不安。广州会议翻译公司。
Little wonder: in recent days Mr Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, has delivered another stream of invective that makes many top party members cringe;, or, more accurately, long for the patrician self-control of a man such as George HW Bush.
这也难怪：近日来，这位美国总统大选共和党假定被提名人又进行了一轮谩骂，令党内很多高层人士感到紧张，或者更准确的说，他们渴望他能展现出一点老布什(George HW Bush)那样的贵族般的自控力。广州会议翻译公司。
But tThis particular dinner included an intriguing twist: the main speaker at the table was a charming Republican power broker who I shall call “Bob”. And Bob had arrived with a mission to “sell” Mr Trump — verbal gaffes and all. Bob has dealt extensively with The Donald for many years and endorsed him. And now he has embarked on the challenging task of persuading other elite Republicans to do the same.
但是这场特别的晚宴中出现了一个有趣的转折：餐桌上的主要发言人是一位有魅力的共和党权力掮客，我暂且称之为“鲍勃”。鲍勃赴宴的任务是“兜售”特朗普——包括言语上和其他的一切失态。鲍勃与特朗普有多年的密切交情，并为他背书。如今他开始着手这项具有挑战性的任务，要说服其他共和党精英和他一样，做同样的事。广州会议翻译公司。
So how do you make Mr Trump sound palatable to nervous conservative voters? It is worth laying out the sales pitch I heard from Bob, not because I endorse it but because I suspect these arguments will be tossed around numerous other dinner tables in the coming weeks and months.
那么你如何让特朗普在那些紧张的保守派选民那里听起来顺耳些？在这里，有必要把我从鲍勃那里听到的推销说辞罗列出来，并不是因为我支持他的说辞，而是因为我认为未来数周乃至数月，这些言论将在无数其他的餐桌上被抛出。广州会议翻译公司。
Essentially, Bob’s argument boiled down to three points. First — and most obviously — Mr Trump is a genius at connecting with the crowds. That is one good reason for Republicans to embrace him, Bob said, given that other leading figures in the GOP party have lacked that popular touch (just think of Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush).
从本质上讲，鲍勃的论点归结为3点。首先——也是最明显的一点——特朗普在与大众沟通方面是个天才。鲍勃称，鉴于共和党内其他领军人物没有大众缘（只要想想米特•罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)和杰布•布什(Jeb Bush)便知道了），这是共和党人接受特朗普的一条很好的理由。广州会议翻译公司。
Second, Mr Trump also has innate “leadership” skills and is “decisive”, not least because he is, according to Bob, “the first entrepreneur to run for president”. Of course, the fact that Trump has spent his life in business does have one huge disadvantage in the eyes of the political class: he does not speak or act like a traditional politician: just listen to his aggressive diatribes.
第二点，据鲍勃称，特朗普还拥有天生的“领导”才能和“决断力”，这主要是因为他是“首位竞选总统的企业家”。当然，在政治阶层看来，特朗普毕生都在经商的事实存在一个巨大的不利因素：他的言行举止并不像传统政客：只要听听他咄咄逼人的谩骂就能看出这点。广州会议翻译公司。
But as the wine flowed over dinner, Bob smoothly brushed away the misgivings that some Republicans might feel about Mr Trump’s more incendiary comments by stressing that The Donald is still a political neophyte.
但是，酒过三巡后，鲍勃通过强调特朗普仍然只是一个政坛新人，顺利地扫清了一些共和党人对特朗普发表更煽动性的言论可能存在的顾虑。广州会议翻译公司。
And that leads to the third, and most important, point in this sales pitch: Mr Trump will only be the frontman of any Republican campaign. More specifically, precisely because he is a political neophyte, he does not have the type of sophisticated organisational framework or funding structure in place that is needed to win elections. Under normal circumstances, that might seem to be a disadvantage but it underlines his outsider credentials while at the same time leaving room for the Republican party establishment to bring its own ideas, funding machine and priorities into play.
这就引出了第三点、也是他推销说辞中最重要的一点：特朗普将只是共和党竞选的门面。更具体地说，恰恰是因为他是政坛新人，所以他并没有赢得竞选所必需的那类复杂的组织架构和精心的筹款安排。在正常环境下，这或许看起来像是劣势，但是这突出了他作为局外人的可信度，同时又给共和党留下空间，可以将自己的想法、筹款机器和优先事宜通过特朗普付诸实施。广州会议翻译公司。
Or to put it another way, Mr Trump is best viewed as an “empty vessel” that men such as Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, will fill, by providing the policy brains and organisational brawn.
或者这么说，最好把特朗普看作一个“空壳”，众议院议长保罗•瑞安(Paul Ryan)这样的人可以提供政策头脑和组织血肉来把他填满。广州会议翻译公司。
And that, Bob argued, is why senior Republicans should now fall in line: by voting for Mr Trump now, you get a future administration that will be essentially controlled by people such as Mr Ryan.
鲍勃提出，这正是资深共和党人如今应该认同特朗普的原因：现在投票支持特朗普，未来你会得到一届实质上由瑞安等人控制的政府。广州会议翻译公司。
Now I dare say that some Financial Times readers will recoil in horror from the cynicism of this sales pitch; others will argue that it is dangerously naive. After all, it is far from clear right now that the Republican elite can ever control Mr Trump, not least because it is even less certain that Mr Trump can control himself.
现在我敢说，英国《金融时报》的一些读者会对这套推销说辞的玩世不恭感到恐惧；其他人会认为这种想法天真得危险。毕竟，现在还远不清楚共和党精英能否控制住特朗普，特别是，特朗普能否控制自己甚至更不确定。广州会议翻译公司。
But by the end of the meal I had the impression that the table was split: some of the diners were still too uneasy to vote for Mr Trump while others were reluctantly considering it.
但是，在这顿饭结束时，我感觉整个餐桌上的人分为了两派：部分人对投票支持特朗普仍然感到惴惴不安，而其他人则正在勉强考虑这件事。广州会议翻译公司。
What happens next is anyone’s guess. We now live in a political Alice-in-Wonderland world.
接下来发生的事谁也说不准。我们如今生活在有如爱丽丝梦游仙境的政治世界里。
