前两天我问我的一个美国白人同事:“你相信那些总统候选人的许诺吗?”
美国同事回答:“不相信.”
我又问:“既然你不相信,为什么还要参与选举?”
同事回答:“Regardless, you will get one of the evils, if you are not happy of any of the choices, pick the lesser of the two evils.”
同事的回答和John Kenneth Galbraith说的很合拍。John Kenneth Galbraith说,“Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
我也从来不相信政客们口中的许诺,我想就连他们自己都未必相信他们所说的。Charles De Gaulle说的好:“Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word. ” Maureen Murphy 也说:“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. ” 我想,我这位同事的观点表达了大部分选民的心态,我们也就是在烂柿子堆里尽量挑一个烂得少一点的而已。
选总统从来就是一件艰难的事情,Jay Leno 说:“If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates. ”相必感到艰难的不仅仅是Letterman,就连上帝也觉得这种事情很头痛呢!
在我眼里,政治是一种制造麻烦的艺术,一如Dalton Camp所说:“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. ”
我之所以不喜欢选女Clinton当总统,除了在上一篇文章跟帖中提到的那些理由外,还有另外一个为她着想的理由,that is:it will be too much trouble to put makeup on two faces. 哈哈哈。。。
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