(2016) Meet the Candidates (认识总统候选人)

We interrupt our regular Pacific updates to bring you a quick overview of the people running for president of the United States.

本来这星期应该更新美舰本下面故事线的(没事,更新还会有的哦),但因为我最近邮箱里快被挤爆了,所以我想稍微介绍下目前大选的人物。

Traditionally, as told by Iowa in our first series, America’s politics is split into two distinctive parties. The democrats and republicans are both fighting over the nomination spot for their party, and the race is still currently on-going as of today.

小衣在我们第一期已经说过了,美国目前政治分两党。民主党和共和党都在争夺自己党内候选人中。现在还在争夺中。

Before we begin, I’d like to point out that I am an American. Our artist is Chinese (not Chinese-American, Chinese). Please note that the particular viewpoints presented below represent only impressions based on my reading of each particular candidate’s supporters.

我先稍微解释下,我是美国人。司马是中国人(不是美国籍华人是中国人)。下面的观点,是我观察各个候选人支持者所得出的结论。

The democratic contenders:

民主党:

If you’ve kept an eye at all on current events, you should know Hillary Clinton. Former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State. Clinton’s supporters view her as a sensible, experienced leader with plenty of experience in Washington, a legion of strategists, and a well-oiled network of supporters. This would be her second presidential run since ’08.

如果你对政治感兴趣的话,希拉里应该不陌生。前第一夫人,议员,以及国务卿,大多数希拉里的粉丝认为她是个好商量(会妥协)有经验的政治老手。手上有高手如云的智囊团,大量的资金以及支持者,以及华盛顿(就是美国口语中表示政府)的支持。这是她第二次选总统(第一次08年输给了观海同志)

She is currently the undisputed frontrunner of the democratic race, building up a massive delegate over Bernie Sanders, shown below.

目前来说,她遥遥领先下面的老爷子。

Against Clinton is Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont currently running for the democratic nomination. Sanders’ supporters are drawn to his authenticity and his consistent message of fighting against income inequality, wage stagnation, and other social injustices.

挑战希拉里的是杉德斯(你们叫他总书记,我一般习惯性叫他老爷子,噗)。这位是一个独立(不是民主党也不是共和党)从VT州来的议员。总书记的支持者主要被他的真诚而打动,而他那一致的反收入不平衡,工资的非成长,以及其他社会上的不公是他主要的吸引力。

On the GOP side, everyone now knows that the party is currently undergoing a “fundamental transformation” (or civil war). The party is fractured between three individual forces, which are respectively the party establishment (represented currently by John Kasich), the “true conservative” (represented by Ted Cruz), and Trump.

共和党这边目前正在“系统性改革”(或者我比较喜欢“内战”这个词)。目前三国鼎立。党内大佬(凯希克),真保守派(克鲁斯),和特朗普。

(Note for our Chinese readers trying to learn English, Kasich is pronounced “Ka-sic” like “basic”)

(先说下,中国朋友们,那个,Kasich的读法是类似于Basic那样的硬音。这个其实我们也老搞错。我这边一半的朋友根本叫不出他的名字来,只知道他是那个K打头的家伙)

First and foremost we have John Kasich, the last republican “insider” left in the race. Kasich is viewed by his supporters as a moderate, centrist candidate, and he is considered to have a proven track record of governance at every level of government. As the governor of Ohio, he just recently won his state’s primary.

首先就是代表共和党大佬们的凯希克。美舰本作品内简称州长。作为共和党大佬最后的希望(其实这个不太对劲…容我等司马更新下一幅图后慢慢道来…),州长支持者认为他是个平和,比较中规中矩的人。并且他在执政上属于有相当强力业绩的人(华盛顿DC和俄海俄都有)。目前作为俄州的州长,他刚刚赢了本地的初选。

We also have two establishment candidates who has suspended their campaigns in the Republican Primary. Both are from Florida – the former governor Jeb Bush, and the current Senator Marco Rubio. You can see our thoughts on the matter in these posts covering the before and aftermaths of the Nevada-South Carolina primaries.

其次就是这师徒二人,理论上也是党内大佬的。小小灌木和水哥(杰布 布什和马克奥 卢比奥(对不起我不知道为什么总打出路标二字…)。这二位的相爱相杀我已经吐槽过了。而下一个更新的图,会给这个故事带来一个结尾。

Running directly against Kasich is Ted Cruz.

当然,直接与州长相对的,是克鲁斯。

Something of a firebrand, Ted Cruz is a senator from Texas. While outside of the conservative circle there are a lot of people who revile him for various things (shutting down the government, for instance), his supporters describe him as a principled conservative who is motivated by a strong sense for his conservative ideology and fights for smaller government and the Constitution.

克鲁斯在党内争论比较大。这位从德州来的议员是个炸药桶。基本上除了保守派外,大家都非常恨他(最常见的理由是把政府搞瘫痪了 – 这个以后可以讲),但他的支持者认为这是一位非常忠贞的保守斗士。他为自己的观点不惜烧掉一切,而他的动机基本上就是为了小政府,共和党(保守)意念,以及保护美国宪法。

Lastly, and currently leading the GOP field, is Mr. Trump.

最后就是特朗普啦。目前共和党遥遥领先对手的人。

Depending on who you ask, he is either the reincarnation of Hitler or a once-in-a-lifetime leader who can truly – to use words coming straight out of his campaign message –  Make America Great Again. Absolutely by far the most controversial candidate in American history, Donald J. Trump is a highly successful reality TV star/businessman best known previously for his “Art of the Deal” (and, if I am to interject a personal comment, his real estate projects – I’m from that one state down south where NY dumps their garbage, you know ;).

这家伙,看你问谁。回答他是希特勒重生的人不少,回答他是那位 – 用他自己话来说 – 能真正拯救美国”让美国再次强起来”的千古一帝也不少。这位绝对是美国历史上争论度最大的总统候选人。在选总统前,特朗普是一个非常成功的电视明星以及商人。主要出名是他的那本书(Art of the Deal)。

(注,我表示从南边那个纽约(新)倒(泽)垃(西)圾地方的角度表示,我知道这家伙是因为他确实为纽约州做了不少建设性的建筑物。基本上他对我来讲跟房地产差不多是同义词)

Running as a self-funded political outsider, Trump is seen by his supporters as a common sense candidate who puts America’s interests first, a deal-maker, and someone capable of stopping America’s slow decline over the past decades. Brash, unapologetically patriotic, and unafraid to start fights over any topic, Trump has repeatedly highlighted, often in less-than-politically-correct ways, issues that would have gone undiscussed in other elections.

这位自己掏钱选总统的人是一个谜团。特朗普的支持者认为他是一个有常识的,能妥协的,并且能把美国放在第一的人。口无遮拦的特朗普是个不折不扣的爱国者,没有什么他不敢捅的蜂窝,也没有什么他会避免的话题。这家伙可以说经常挖出来 (一般用非常政治不正确的方式)那些让媒体头疼的本来应该不讨论的话题。

He is currently under constant attack by, well, pretty much both sides of the media. Below we present the rest of Team Trump.

目前正在被左右媒体合伙围攻中。下面是特朗普团队剩下的成员。

Chris Christie is currently the governor of New Jersey. Ben Carson is a renowned neurosurgeon. Both were formerly in the running for the republican nomination, but have since joined in with Trump. Milo is a journalist, but you can basically think of him as a one-man counterbalance/viewpoint against the typical “mainstream” left-leaning media. Jeff Sessions is a conservative senator, well-known for being consistent, who is one of the first politicians in DC to endorse Trump.

两个大家应该都比较熟 – 一个是我的州长(胖州长,爆掉水哥的那位)。另外一个是黑人医生。这两位都曾经是特朗普的对手,但现在成了他的盟友。下面的米洛我上一帖已经讲过了。最后的新面孔是国家的有名保守派议员塞申斯。这位元老级别的老政客以有原则(中文也许叫正气?)为名,(有人说他20年执政从来没支持过任何一个总统候选人)然而,他是第一个正式支持特朗普的议员。

From a personal perspective, Trump and friends are absolutely, hilariously fun to brainstorm and draw. We also find him fascinating, and it’s not purely because of the controversy he brings. In some senses, just as the GOP race has captured the media’s attention, it’s captured our attention as well. If you see how the series is going, you know that we’re doing our best to capture (in a fun way) the spirit of the election. That’s why we got into this thing the first place. I literally sat around chatting with the team about politics about how our girls would feel about the matter, and someone said, why don’t we draw something? It’ll be fun.

从一个个人角度来讲,特朗普和朋友们非常好玩。各种梗玩的画的飞起。我当然认为这个人很有趣,而这并不是因为他带来各种争论。如同各大媒体一样,我们也被他吸引到了。你如果观察下我们这个2016系列的演变就可以看出来 – 特朗普是如何一点点爬入画面中心的。 但同时,这也是抓住目前初选的灵魂的一种方式。我们搞这个真的是因为这个题材有趣,好玩。真的。有一次当我跟队伍里八卦我们舰娘的政治观点时,其中一朋友表示:咱画个图呗。一定很好玩啊。

Draw something we did. So that’s what you see today. At this moment, though, it is absolutely undeniable to me that Trump, perhaps more so than anyone else in the race with possibly the exception of Sanders, has fundamentally transformed what we know about American politics. There are issues in our country. You know that. I know that. What they’ve done is simply brought those issues out into the open, and yes, oftentimes, they’re ugly. But we need to confront the matter sooner or later, and I’m honestly glad that we are doing it now, before things get any worse.

这不,你看,我们真开始画图了。但你知道吗?在这一刻,我认为从我的角度来讲,特朗普(也许也就是总书记在这上面能跟他一拼吧)从根本上改变了美国政治的面貌。美国国内有问题。你知道,我也知道。这是藏不得的。特朗普和杉德斯的成就,其实就是把这些问题拖了出来,把他们暴光在大家的眼皮底下。也许这些问题很丑,很难看。但我们需要面对这些问题。

所以我对这次的大选是很开心的。因为至少我们选择了面对问题,而不是得过且过,让他们变的更糟糕。

The lore we have for Pacific, the “main” work where this entire 2016 series is basically that  exceptional or notable individuals can become fairies. The fairies and their super-powered human allies (the shipgirls in question – the young women in the pictures) are unequivocally fighting on humanity’s behalf against inter-dimensional sea monsters out to the devour the world.

当然,美舰本内的故事蛮简单的。作为2016的“母体”作品,美舰本内,有特殊能力或者特殊影响的人,可以变成精灵。这些精灵和那些跟他们相关的拥有超能力的妹子们(舰娘)是为了人类而奋斗的。毕竟他们面对的是跨空间的巨大海怪哦。

When I say we’re trying to present everyone as the “good” guys here, I mean it. Seriously. The composition of each piece is meant to carefully reflect on our interpretation of the political situation at large. It’s true that a lot of times Hillary and Bernie are “fighting” off in the background and not the foreground, but isn’t that true given how TV, radio, and the internet’s covering this whole thing?

我的意思是,这上面每一个人都应该是“好人。”真的。我们每一幅画其实是考虑到了当时的政治风格以及节奏。确实很多情况下民主党的二位是在背后慢慢撕着,但你看看呢?看看电视,收音机,网络。他们是在大家的眼前,还是共和党占据了绝大多数的新闻呢?

Look at all of our pieces to date. Even this one here. You will find that we really do strive to give every character as much attention and as much detail as we can given. You might see a lot of Trump, but it doesn’t mean that Cruz or Kasich or Sanders or Clinton are any less well drawn!

看看我们这里每一个精灵吧。你会发现,我们真的尽力了。我们试图公平对待每一个人物。你也许总看到特朗普,但其实你看,我们其他候选人的细节也跟特朗普一样细哦。

I said it in my last post. I try to be fair, not neutral. Neutral would mean that I have no opinion, which at this point is clearly not true. I’m doing my best to present things as “fair” as my personal values and opinions may be, and if my words and Sima’s art can’t convince you that we’re trying to give your favorite character fair treatment, then I’m sorry, that’s just the way things are.

真的,我上次已经说过了。我希望公平,而不是中立。中立表示我没有观点,而你应该能看出来我是有的。我希望在这个系列中我能公平的表现出这个故事,而我的公平当然是跟我个人的价值观和观点有关系的。然而总之,如果我的字和司马的画不能说服你我们正在尽力的公平对待你支持的人物,那,对不起。我们的作品就这样。

Please understand that I value freedom of speech, not freedom from speech.

我支持自由言论,不是 –

嘛,这个,莫根画蛇添足了。本来应该是个很给力的玩笑呢。英文的意思是我支持自由言论,而不是从自由言论中逃避。英文有时会用变一两个字来吐槽某件事情,而这里其实是我用来吐槽美国目前的政治文化(就是政治正确)的笑点。

…突然感觉自己中文还是没学好啊。看样子我需要继续宅宅萌百什么的。下次见。


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