(单词翻译:单击)
Hi I'm Craig and this is Crash Course Government and Politics.
大家好，我是克雷格，这里是政府与政治速成班。
And today we're going to try and untangle the mess that is the American political campaign.
今天我们要试着理清美国政治竞选的混乱局面。
One of the things about the American political system that often confuses people who don't live in America is the way that our politicians run for office.
美国政治制度的一个特点是，我们的政客们竞选公职的方式经常让那些不住在美国的人感到困惑。
There are two aspects in particular that stand out about American political campaigns: their length and their expense.
在美国的政治竞选中，有两个方面特别引人注目:时长和开销。
We're going to look at both of these today and see that they're related but before we do we are going to answer a burning question: why do we need political campaigns anyway?
我们今天要看看这两种情况，看看它们之间是否有关联，但在此之前，我们要回答一个迫切的问题:我们究竟为什么需要政治竞选?
If you ask one hundred people about the reason why we have political campaigns, you'll get well, not a hundred but at least more than one answer.
如果你问一百个人我们为什么要进行政治竞选，虽说没有一百个答案，但肯定不止一个。
And you might work for Family Feud.
你可能会为家庭不和而工作。
Probably the best answer to this question though, is that we have political campaigns to provide voters with information they need to choose a candidate to represent them.
也许对这个问题最好的回答是，我们有政治活动，为选民提供他们需要的信息，以选择一个候选人来代表他们。
So how do political campaigns provide information?
那么，政治竞选活动是如何提供信息的呢?
And what is a political campaign anyway?
那么什么是政治竞选呢？
Let's go to the Thought Bubble.
让我们进入思想泡泡。
A campaign is an organized drive on the part of a candidate to get elected to an office.
竞选是候选人为竞选公职而进行的有组织的努力。
It's also the way we refer to the organization itself.
这也是我们提到组织本身的方式。
For example, in 2012 we had the Obama campaign and the Romney campaign.
例如，2012年我们有奥巴马竞选团队和罗姆尼竞选团队。
And each consisted of a campaign organization made up of thousands of staffers and volunteers and all of their activities.
每一个都由一个由数千名工作人员和志愿者组成的活动组织和他们所有的活动组成。
Most campaigns are temporary, geared towards an election although both parties do have permanent professional campaign organizations.
虽然两党都有长期的专业竞选组织，但大多数竞选活动都是临时的，是为了选举而进行的。
At the top level are the national committees, the DNC and the RNC.
最高层是全国委员会、民主党全国委员会和共和党全国委员会。
Can you guess what they stand for?
你能猜到它们代表什么吗?
These organizations coordinate all national campaigns, especially those for President.
这些组织协调所有的国家运动，特别是总统竞选。
Each house of congress has a Republican and Democratic campaign committee.
国会两院各有一个共和党和民主党的竞选委员会。
The individual Senate and Congressional committees are headed up by sitting members of the Senate and the House,
独立的参议院和国会委员会由参议院和众议院的现任成员领导，
and because these committees give money to candidates, their leaders are very popular.
由于这些委员会向候选人提供资金，他们的领导人非常受欢迎。
I find that I'm popular when I make it rain at parties.
我发现当我在聚会上让天下雨时，我很受欢迎。
Campaigns provide information in a number of ways.
竞选以多种方式提供信息。
The main thing they do is communicate with the public, usually through the media which we'll discuss in greater depth in future episodes.
他们做的主要事情是与公众沟通，通常通过媒体，我们将在未来的章节中更深入地讨论。
The main stage of political campaigns is the organized event where candidates can present information about themselves and their policies directly through voters and speeches.
政治竞选的主要阶段是有组织的活动，候选人可以通过选民和演讲直接介绍他们自己和他们的政策。
These are known as stump speeches, although only rarely these days do candidates actually speak on stumps, they have podiums and stages now.
这就是所谓的政治演说。虽然现在候选人很少站在树桩上讲话，但是他们现在有讲台和讲台了。
In addition to these events, candidates present the information by appearing on the TV, in debates, at town meetings, and in “impromptu” photo opportunities.
除了这些活动，候选人还通过电视、辩论、镇民大会和“即兴”拍照机会来展示信息。
They like to appear with military hardware, too, although sometimes this can backfire, as in the case of Michael Dukakis in 1988.
它们也喜欢与军事装备一起出现，尽管有时这可能适得其反，就像1988年迈克尔•杜卡基斯的例子。
Campaigns can spread their messages through direct mail, press releases, news coverage, and through advertisements, often on the TV, which is like the internet, only less interactive and has a lot of real housewives on it.
竞选活动可以通过直接邮件、新闻稿、新闻报道和广告来传播他们的信息，通常是在电视上，电视就像互联网一样，互动性较差，有很多真实的家庭主妇在上面。
Thanks, thought bubble.
谢谢思想泡泡。
Nowadays, there are many more ways that candidates can reach out to voters.
如今，候选人有更多的方式来接触选民。
One way is through email.
其中一种方法是通过电子邮件。
If you've ever given money to a candidate or a campaign, you can expect emails in ever-increasing numbers as election day approaches, and we all love that.
如果你曾经资助过一位候选人或一场竞选活动，随着选举日的临近，你会收到越来越多的电子邮件，我们都喜欢这一点。
Candidates now take to Twitter to blast out information and individual candidates and their campaigns often have Facebook pages.
如今，候选人在Twitter上发布大量信息，个别候选人和他们的竞选团队往往有Facebook页面。
There are even campaign ads made specifically for YouTube, although how their advertising algorithm works is beyond me.
甚至还有专门为YouTube制作的竞选广告，尽管我不知道他们的广告算法是如何工作的。
It's weird to get a campaign ad for the Michigan Senate if you don't live in Michigan.
如果你不住在密歇根，那得到密歇根参议院的竞选广告就很奇怪了。
One other way that campaigns communicate information is through raising money.
竞选活动传递信息的另一种方式是筹集资金。
Of course, they need money to pay for all the campaign ribbons and buttons and PA systems and folding chairs and tour buses and stump speeches and axes to chop down trees so they have stumps to speak on.
当然，他们需要钱来支付所有的竞选用丝带、竞选用纽扣、竞选用音响、竞选用折叠椅、竞选用公共汽车、竞选演说以及用来砍伐树木的斧头的费用。
These things ain't cheap.
这些东西可不便宜。
Even more expensive are advertisements on the TV.
电视上的广告更贵。
A sitting president has an advantage here in that he can usually get on TV whenever he wants and he'll have a chance to clarify his positions in the State of the Union Address.
在任总统在这方面有一个优势，他通常可以随时上电视，而且他将有机会在国情咨文中阐明自己的立场。
But even he has to spend money on ads.
但即使是在任总统也不得不在广告上花钱。
And raising money is another way to present voters with information because campaign solicitations usually come with some policy piece attached to them.
筹集资金是向选民提供信息的另一种方式，因为竞选游说通常附带一些政策条款。
Almost every solicitation you get will be somewhat targeted to one of your interests and tell you, or try to tell you, where the candidate asking for your money stands on that issue.
几乎你收到的每一份邀请都是针对你的兴趣之一，告诉你，或者试图告诉你，向你要钱的候选人在这个问题上的立场。
So you may have gotten a campaign solicitation and wondered, “Hey, why you need my money?”
因此，你可能收到了竞选活动的邀请，并想知道，“嘿，你为什么需要我的钱?”
The unhelpful answer is that they need your money because campaigns are expensive.
没有帮助的答案是，他们需要你的钱，因为竞选活动是昂贵的。
But then you might ask, “why are they so expensive?”
但你可能会问，“为什么这么贵?”
Good question.
好问题。
Campaigns are expensive because they're huge, especially presidential campaigns;
竞选活动耗资巨大，尤其是总统竞选；
they need to reach 220 million people of voting age.
他们需要2.2亿达到投票年龄的人。
Another reason they're expensive is because they're super long.
它们昂贵的另一个原因是它们超长。
Democrat and Republican candidates raise money, give speeches and create political action committees years before the election.
民主党和共和党候选人在选举前几年就筹集资金、发表演讲并成立政治行动委员会。
It's ridiculous. I blame the eagle.
这是荒谬的。我责怪老鹰。
Campaigns are also expensive because Americans expect them to be personal and this takes time and money.
竞选活动也很昂贵，因为美国人希望竞选是个人化的，这需要时间和金钱。
We like to see our candidates in person and have them show up in small towns in Iowa and New Hampshire, even though those states don't matter all that much in the grand electoral picture.
我们希望看到我们的候选人亲自出现在爱奥华州和新罕布什尔州的小镇上，尽管这些州在大的选举图景中并不那么重要。
Another reason campaigns are so expensive is that they rely increasingly on the TV and other visual media that cost a lot of money to produce.
广告如此昂贵的另一个原因是，他们越来越依赖电视和其他视觉媒体，而这些媒体的制作成本很高。
Gone are the days when William McKinley could sit on his porch in Ohio and have reporters come to him.
威廉·麦金利可以坐在俄亥俄州自家的门廊上，让记者来采访他的日子一去不复返了。
Nowadays, even when candidates get free exposure by appearing on nightly comedy shows, like The Daily Show, it still costs the campaign in terms of time, travel and probably wardrobe and makeup so that they can look as good as I do.
如今，即使候选人通过参加《每日秀》等夜间喜剧节目获得免费曝光机会，竞选活动仍要花费时间、旅行，或许还要花费服装和化妆品，才能让他们看起来和我一样漂亮。
No makeup. Minimal wardrobe: no pants. Sorry, Stan.
没有化妆。最小衣橱:不穿裤子。对不起,斯坦。
How expensive are campaigns anyway? Eh...very!
竞选活动到底有多贵?嗯…非常贵！
In the 2008 presidential campaign both candidates together spent three billion dollars.
在2008年的总统竞选中，两位候选人总共花费了30亿美元。
In 2012 the candidates spent about a billion dollars each, and outside groups spent a further four billion.
2012年，两位候选人每人花费了大约10亿美元，外部团体又花费了40亿美元。
And congressional elections weren't much cheaper, except when you consider that there were a lot more of them.
国会选举也没有便宜多少，除非你考虑到有更多的国会选举。
Combined, congressional races in 2008 cost about one billion dollars.
2008年的国会选举总共花费了大约10亿美元。
All the money that gets spent on campaigns leads us inevitably to campaign finance rules, which were set up by Congress after 1970 and refined by the courts.
所有花在竞选上的钱都不可避免地导致我们制定竞选资金规则，这些规则是1970年后由国会制定的，并由法院加以完善。
We have campaign finance legislation because all that money pouring into campaigns sure looks like it raises the potential for corruption.
我们有竞选资金立法，因为投入竞选的所有资金看起来肯定会增加腐败的可能性。
Whether or not an individual's campaign contributions can sway a congressman's vote is highly debatable
一个人的竞选捐款是否能左右国会议员的投票，这是一个高度有争议的问题
but it certainly gives the appearance of impropriety when a congressman who receives millions of dollars from the oil industry then works hard to weaken regulations on oil companies so that they can make more profit.
但是，当一名国会议员从石油行业获得数百万美元，然后又努力削弱对石油公司的监管，使它们能够获得更多利润的时候，这种做法显然是不恰当的。
Campaign contributions are not bribes, but they sure look like them to lots of people.
竞选捐款并不是贿赂，但对很多人来说，它们确实很像贿赂。
Recognizing that campaign contributions could potentially influence the political process, congress passes the Federal Election Campaign act of 1971.
国会认识到竞选捐款可能会影响政治进程，于是通过了1971年的《联邦竞选法案》。
This was the first law that put limits on campaign spending and donations.
这是第一部限制竞选支出和捐款的法律。
It was further refined by the McCain-Feingold Campaign Law in 2002, and by court decisions that refined the rules for campaign spending and donations and provided a legal rationale for these limits.
2002年，《麦凯恩-法因戈尔德竞选法》以及法院的裁决进一步完善了竞选支出和捐款的规则，并为这些限制提供了法律依据。
Until recently, the most important case on campaign finance was Buckley V Valleo.
至今，竞选资金方面最重要的案例还是巴克利诉瓦莱里奥案。
This case established the idea that limits on campaign spending were problematic under the first amendment because limiting the amount someone could spend on politics was basically limiting what that person could say about politics.
这个案件确立了这样一种观点，即根据第一修正案，限制竞选支出是有问题的，因为限制一个人在政治上的支出，基本上就是限制了这个人对政治的言论。
Freedom of speech, y'all!
言论自由!
According to the rules, individuals were allowed to donate up to $2500 per candidate and their was a total limit to the amount an individual could give.
根据规定，个人最多可以为每位候选人捐款2500美元，而他们的捐款总额是个人捐款的上限。
Donations to a party committee, which because they don't go to a specific candidate and thus seem less like bribes, were limited to $28,500.
向党委捐款的金额被限制在2.85万美元以内，因为这些捐款不会流向特定的候选人，因此看起来不那么像贿赂。
Individual donors were also allowed to give up to $5,000 to a political action committee, or PAC.
个人捐赠者也被允许向政治行动委员会(PAC)捐款最多5000美元。
But it gets more complicated.
但它变得更加复杂。
Individuals and PACs are allowed to give unlimited funds to a 527 group, named after its designation in the tax code, that focuses on issue advocacy.
个人和政治行动委员会被允许向527个团体提供无限制的资金。527个团体以其在税法中的指定名称命名，专注于议题倡导。
The most famous 527 group in recent political memory is probably Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which spent more than 22 million dollars to raise awareness around the issue of whether 2004 presidential candidate,
在最近的政治记忆中，最有名的527个组织可能是“快艇老兵寻求真相”，他们花费了2200多万美元来提高人们对2004年总统候选人是否参选的关注。
and later Secretary of State John Kerry was completely honest about his Vietnam War record.
后来，国务卿约翰·克里完全坦诚了自己的越南战争记录。
If this sounds like it was more of an organization against the candidate himself, well you can see why the line between “issue advocacy” and support for a political campaign can be kind of blurry.
如果这听起来更像是一个反对候选人本人的组织，那么你就能明白为什么“问题倡导”和支持政治竞选之间的界线可能有点模糊了。
Now here's something important: these limits are on contributions to candidates and campaigns, not on spending by candidates and campaigns.
现在有一点很重要:这些限制是针对候选人和竞选活动的捐款，而不是针对候选人和竞选活动的支出。
What this means is that a candidate and their campaign can spend however much they raise.
这意味着候选人和他们的竞选团队可以花费他们筹集到的任何资金。
So if a candidate running for office has one billion dollars, they can spend one billion trying to win.
所以，如果一个竞选公职的候选人有10亿美元，他们就可以花10亿美元来争取胜利。
There's no concern about self-funded candidates bribing themselves, and you often see very rich people spending a lot of their own money trying to win office.
自筹资金的候选人不用担心贿赂自己，你经常会看到非常富有的人花很多钱来竞选公职。
So Buckley Vs. Valleo set up the basic distinction between campaign donations, which could be limited, and campaign spending, which couldn't.
所以巴克利诉瓦莱奥案在竞选捐款和竞选支出之间建立了基本的区别，前者可以是有限的，后者则不能。
This distinction was undercut by the Supreme Court in the case of Citizens United Vs. the Federal Election Commission in 2009.
最高法院在2009年“公民联盟”诉联邦选举委员会一案中，削弱了这种区别。
This reaffirmed the idea that money is the equivalent of speech and struck down many of the limitations on campaign donations.
这再次证实了金钱等同于言论的观点，并消除了竞选捐款的许多限制。
The Citizens United decision cleared the way for Super PACs.
公民联盟的决定为超级政治行动委员会扫清了道路。
These organizations are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to promote a candidate or publicize a cause,
这些组织被允许筹集和花费不受限制的资金来宣传候选人或宣传一项事业，
but they may not directly contribute to a candidate or coordinate with a campaign.
但他们可能不会直接向候选人捐款或与竞选活动协调。
In the 2012 election, there were over 500 registered super PACs and 41 of them spent over half a million dollars.
在2012年的选举中，有超过500家超级政治行动委员会注册，其中41家花费超过50万美元。
The largest seven had spent over 256 million by the end of August, one of the reasons that the 2012 election was the most expensive ever, clocking in at around 6 billion.
截至8月底，规模最大的七家公司已经花费了2.56亿多美元，这也是2012年大选成为有史以来最昂贵的一场选举的原因之一，其花费达到约60亿美元。
Now this sounds like a lot of money, right?
这听起来是一大笔钱，对吧?
It is. Gimme it.
确实是，应该给我。
But a little context: the total spent on house and senate races was around 3.6 billion dollars, which was less than half of what Americans spend annually on potato chips.
但是，让我们来了解一下背景：在众议院和参议院的竞选上总共花费了36亿美元，还不到美国人每年在薯片上花费的一半。
So when you look at it this way, the amount we spend on elections doesn't seem like so much, which may make us rethink the idea that money is corrupting American politics.
所以从这个角度来看，我们花在选举上的钱似乎并不多，这可能会让我们重新思考金钱正在腐蚀美国政治的观点。
Or maybe not.
或者不是。
Maybe potato chips are corrupting American politics.
也许薯片正在腐蚀美国政治。
Certainly corrupting my belly.
当然会腐蚀我的肚子。
American political campaigns are big and high stakes and raise questions about the influence of money in politics that are tough to answer.
美国的政治竞选活动规模庞大，利害攸关，并引发了有关金钱在政治中的影响力的问题，这些问题很难回答。
On the one hand, it does seem like there's the potential for very rich people to have a lot of influence on the elections.
一方面，非常富有的人似乎有可能对选举产生很大的影响。
On the other hand, limiting a person's ability to register his or her preference of a candidate through spending on that candidate does seem like a limitation on their political speech.
另一方面，通过在候选人身上花钱来限制一个人表达他或她对候选人的偏好的能力，似乎确实是对他们政治演讲的一种限制。
One of the arguments for limits on campaign contributions is that forcing candidates to raise money in small amounts from a large number of donors will make them reach out to larger numbers of constituents, and appealing to large numbers is the essence of Democracy.
另一方面，通过在候选人身上花钱来限制一个人表达他或她对候选人的偏好的能力，似乎确实是对他们政治演讲的一种限制。
But it's also time consuming for a politician to reach out to all those potential donors and congressmen already spend a considerable amount of time raising money when they should be legislating.
但是，对一个政治家来说，接触所有那些潜在的捐助者也是很费时的。国会议员本来应该在立法的时候已经花了相当多的时间来筹集资金。
And watching Real Housewives. And eating Little Caesar's. There's a lot to do.
看《家庭主妇》。吃小凯撒饼。有很多事情要做。
But this is the system we have, and unless congress passes a law limiting campaign expenditures, or shortening the campaign season,
但这是我们现有的体制，除非国会通过一项限制竞选开支或缩短竞选季节的法律，
we can expect campaigns to remain long and get more and more expensive.
否则我们可以预计竞选活动将持续很长时间，而且会越来越昂贵。
Thanks for watching, I'll see you next time.
谢谢收看，我们下次再见。
Crash Course Government and Politics is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios.
政府与政治速成班是与PBS数字工作室联合制作的。
Support for Crash Course US Government comes from Voqal.
对美国政府速成班的支持来自Voqal。
Voqal supports non-profits that use technology and media to advance social equity.
Voqal支持使用技术和媒体促进社会公平的非营利组织。
Learn more about their mission and initiatives at Voqal.org.
更多关于他们的使命和倡议，请访问Voqal.org。
Crash Course was made with the help of all of these campaign financiers.
速成班是在所有这些竞选资助者的帮助下完成的。
Thanks for watching.
感谢收看。
