◎黃裕美輯譯
Modern conservatism began as a movement of dissident intellectuals. Richard Weaver wrote a book called, "Ideas Have Consequences." William F. Buckley famously said he'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard. But he didn't be-lieve those were the only two options. His entire life was a celebration of urbane values, sophistication and the rigorous and constant application of intellect.

現代保守主義濫觴於異議知識分子運動。威佛出了一本書，書名是《觀念有其後果》。〔博學多才的保守派編輯兼作家，影響美國保守派政界至鉅的〕巴克利曾有一句名言，說他寧可被波士頓電話簿前兩千名用戶統治，也比哈佛那些教職員要強。但他不相信只有這兩種選擇，他畢生鼓吹機智有禮的價值，溫文儒雅及縝密和經常運用智慧。

   Driven by a need to engage elite opinion, conservatives tried to build an intellectual counterestablishment with think tanks and magazines. They disdained the ideas of the liberal pro-fessoriate, but they did not disdain the idea of a cultivated mind.

由於必需融入菁英意見，保守派試圖結合智庫和報章雜誌建立一知性的反主流體制。他們鄙視主張自由主義的學院派理念，但並不排斥靈活的大腦所思考出來的觀點。

   Ronald Reagan was no intellectual, but he had an earnest faith in ideas and he spent decades working through them. He was rooted in the Midwest, but he also loved Holly-wood. And for a time, it seemed the Republican Party would be a broad coalition — small-town values with coastal reach. 

 〔美國已故總統〕雷根並非知識分子，但他對觀念具有熱誠的信念，並投入數十年之力澈底研究。他出身中西部，但也愛好萊塢。有一陣子，共和黨好像可望成為一個有容乃大的給合體：小鎮的價值加上兩岸的觸角。

   But over the past few decades, the Republican Party has driven away people who live in cities, in highly e-ducated regions and on the coasts. This expulsion has had many causes. But the big one is this: Republican political tacticians decided to mobilize their coalition with a form of social class warfare. Democrats kept nomi-nating coastal pointy-heads like Michael Dukakis so Republicans at-tacked coastal pointy-heads.

 但過去一、二十年來，共和黨趕走住在城市、在受過高等教育地區，以及東西兩岸的選民。這次「清黨」因素很多，但其中最大的原因是：共和黨政治策士決定動員和一種社會階級戰爭結合。民主黨不斷提名兩岸知識分子，像杜凱吉斯，共和黨人就不斷攻擊東西兩岸的知識分子。

  Over the past 15 years, the same ar-gument has been heard from a thou-sand politicians and a hundred televi-sion and talk-radio jocks. The nation is divided between the wholesome Joe Sixpacks in the heartland and the oversophisticated, overeducated, o-versecularized denizens of the coasts.

過去15年來，同樣的論調已經至少有上千個政客和上百個電視和脫口秀名嘴反覆提過。美國已經分裂成心臟地帶生氣勃勃的草根民眾，和兩岸太世故、受太多教育、太世俗化的居民。

   What had been a disdain for liberal intellectuals slipped into a disdain for the educated class as a whole. The liberals had coastal condescension, so the conservatives developed their own anti-elitism, with mirror-image cat-egories and mirror-image resentments, but with the same corrosive effect.

原本對自由派知識分子的不屑，在不知不覺中淪為對整個受教育階層的唾棄。自由派既然帶有兩岸的傲慢，保守派就發展出他們那套具有鏡像類比和鏡像仇恨的反主流菁英主義，但同樣造成腐蝕性效應。

   Republicans developed their own leadership style. If Democratic leaders prized deliberation and self-exami-nation, then Republicans would gov-ern from the gut.
共和黨人發展出他們自己那套領導風格，如果民主黨領導人重視深思熟慮和自我檢視，共和黨就全憑本能和直覺統治。

   George W. Bush restrained some of the populist excesses of his party — the anti-immigration fervor, the iso-lationism — but stylistically he fit right in. As Fred Barnes wrote in his book, "Rebel-in-Chief," Bush "reflects the political views and cultural tastes of the vast majority of Americans who don't live along the East or West Coast. He's not a sophisticate and doesn't spend his discretionary time with sophisticates. As First Lady Laura Bush once said, she and the president didn't come to Washington to make new friends. And they haven't."

布希遏阻了他那個政黨一些搞民粹過頭的行徑，像反移民熱及孤立主義，但在施政風格上他若合符節。「叛徒首腦」布希「反映了大部分不住在東西兩岸的美國人的政治觀點和文化品味。他不是老於世故的人，不會隨便花時間和那些世故的人相處。誠如第一夫人蘿拉·布希曾說的，她和總統到華府不是為了交新朋友，他們的確也沒有。」

  The political effects of this trend have been obvious.Republicans have alien-ated the highly educated regions  Sili-con Valley, northern Virginia, the sub-urbs outside of New York, Philadelphia,Chicago and Raleigh-Durham. The West Coast and the Northeast are mostly gone.

這種趨勢的政治效應很明顯。共和黨疏離了受高等教育的地區，像矽谷、維吉尼亞州北部，紐約城外郊區、費城、芝加哥和北卡羅萊納州的洛利杜蘭。西岸和東北部幾乎全部淪陷。

  The Republicans have alienated whole professions. Lawyers now do-nate to the Democratic Party over the Republican Party at 4-to-1 rates. With doctors, it's 2-to-1. With tech executives, it's 5-to-1. With invest-ment bankers, it's 2-to-1. It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community.

共和黨並自外於所有的專業。律師現在捐給民主黨和共和黨的錢的比率是4比1；醫生是2比1；科技主管是5比1；投資銀行家則是2 比1。共和黨還真是天才，連銀行金融這塊都輸輸去。

   Conservatives are as rare in elite u-niversities and the mainstream media as they were 30 years ago. The smartest young Americans are now e-ducated in an overwhelmingly liberal environment.

菁英大學和主流媒體中，保守派有如鳳毛麟角，和30年前一樣。聰明的美國年輕人現在多半在一個一面倒的自由派環境中受教育。

   This year could have changed things. The G.O.P. had three urbane presidential candidates. But the class-warfare cliches took control. Rudy Giuliani disdained cosmopoli-tans at the Republican convention. Mitt Romney gave a speech attacking "eastern elites." John McCain picked Sarah Palin.

 今年本來可以扭轉情勢，共和黨有三位溫文儒雅的總統候選人，但階級鬥爭的陳腔濫調主導一切。朱良尼在共和黨大會中對世界主義者嗤之以鼻。羅姆尼也發表演說攻擊「東岸菁英階層」。馬侃則選了莎拉‧裴林當他的副手。

   Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her conven-tion and debate performances were impressive. But no American politi-cian plays the class-warfare card as constantly as Palin. Nobody so re-lentlessly divides the world between the "normal Joe Sixpack American" and the coastal elite.

裴林很聰明、政治手腕高明、勇氣可佳又受歡迎。她在黨大會和辯論中的表現都可圈可點。但沒有任何一個美國政客，像裴林這樣常打階級鬥爭牌，也沒有人像她那樣殘酷無情地把世界一分為二：「一般升斗小民」對上兩岸菁英階層。

   And so, politically, the G.O.P. is squeezed at both ends. The party is losing the working class by sins of omission — because it has not devel-oped policies to address economic anxiety. It has lost the educated class by sins of commission — by telling members of that class to go away.
到如今，在政治上，共和黨兩頭空。由於共和黨未發展出任何解決經濟問題的策略，這個忽視的罪使他們失去勞工階級的支持；他們又因叫教育階層滾開，而使這個階層選民流失，犯了識人不明罪。
（取材自紐約時報David Brooks專欄）