It started with a bang. Democrats in the US were tripping over themselves at the start of this year to audition as their party’s chief Trump-slayer. Even the local dogcatcher could defeat Donald Trump, people joked. The field was the largest and most diverse in history — record numbers of women, non-whites, the first openly gay candidate, young aspirants and old. Among those still standing, few show signs of winning the hearts of a party that likes to fall in love, as the saying goes. It was Democrats, after all, who produced John F Kennedy and Barack Obama.
一開頭挺熱鬧。今年年初的時候，美國民主黨人爭先恐后出來競選本黨的首席“弒特朗普者”(Trump-slayer)。人們開玩笑說，即使是當地的捕狗員都能擊敗唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)。民主黨歷史上從沒有出現過這么多、且這么多元化的候選人——女性候選人數量創下紀錄；有非白人候選人；有第一個公開的同性戀候選人；有年輕人，也有老人，都志在必得。如今在那些仍未退出這場競賽的候選人中，幾乎沒有人表現出自己贏得了這個容易陷入愛河的政黨的心（有一種說法是，在提名總統候選人時，民主黨人跟隨自己的心意，共和黨人則論資排輩(When it comes to choosing their presidential nominees, Democrats fall in love while Republicans fall in line)——譯者注）。畢竟，民主黨是一個曾經選出約翰?F?肯尼迪(John F Kennedy)和巴拉克?奧巴馬(Barack Obama)的政黨。