主题：美国精英对美国选票制度的批判。 -- dolong
作者到天津参加了世界经济论坛，被震惊了。印度人也被震惊了，看下面的链接：
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/opinion/22friedman.html
4个小孩，穿了中国、美国、印度、巴西的国旗的衣服的表演？穿美国国旗的小孩摔倒。有链接嘛？
我并不是表扬他们的政治系统，而是担忧我们的正确的政治系统，我们的系统被滥用了（abused）。我们的系统以前很好，但现在被为了选票的政客、恶毒的党派对立、让人上瘾的电视媒体、腐败的政客阶级所滥用。他们不是为了国家的未来，而是为了打败对方。
印度人说：我们怎么能够跟像公司那样组织的国家竞争呢！
我们不准备我们会更好，而是等着中国人失败。
－－－－－－－－－－
这个说明了经济才是最有说服力的，要是经济竞争上落后，人们也会对制度产生怀疑。
YST说得非常好：YST对美元有很精彩的论述。
注：Thomas L. Friedmen 是知名的评论家、作家，在纽约时报有专栏，每个星期有1、2篇文章，见文章开头的链接。他获得过三次新闻界最高的Pulitzer奖。 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Friedman
本帖一共被 4 帖 引用 (帖内工具实现)
AV从来不开国际玩笑。这是福利得慢现编的。
他在众目睽睽之下不敢乱编吧
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/opinion/22friedman.html?sort=recommended
In China, there are dozens of protests and even riots on a regular basis which are not covered in the press. Manifestations of unrest like this frighten the Communist Party, and seem to convince it that to remain in power, it must promote economic prosperity for the broad majority of Chinese. In other words, in China, the people do make themselves heard, to a degree, and the government does listen, although it's not done through any formal structures like elections.
In the U.S., our two-party government faces elections, but elections where incumbents are almost always reelected and any candidate from a third party or without large amounts of money from wealthy donors is functionally excluded. The political class hence feels that it has little to fear from acting against the interests of the broad majority, but much to gain from favoring the interests of a wealthy minority.
America has elections but China does not - yet China pursues economic policies which benefit a majority while the U.S. does not. This is because elections are not democracy - they are a tool which can help achieve democracy, in the same way that a hammer can help build a house. But owning a hammer does mean a house has been created or still stands, and likewise U.S. elections are no evidence of a realized democracy. A Congress with a 20% approval rating is in no way "representative."
So, what exactly is it that makes the U.S. "non-authoritarian?" The only real difference from where I sit between the U.S. and Chinese governments is the relative malign or benign qualities of both nations authoritarian systems.
他对中美之间的比较有点意思：中美都是集权政府，只是方式和程度不同罢了。
本市的市民Newyorker对美元有非常精緻的论述，他指出美元是建立在四个支柱上：军事力量、科学技术、核心价值、与民主制度。
YST认為后两项是软实力，软实力的效果并不具有很大的说服力，更重要的是，软实力都是依附在硬实力上的，并不真正构成美元的基础。譬如美国一旦战败，它的核心价值就会受到质疑；譬如美国经济在全球竞争中一旦落后，它的民主制度立刻就站不住脚。后者正是现在正在发生的事情，也是西方国家最大的忧虑。美式的民主制度效率低下，庞大的律师团阻挠科技的进步，庞大的游说团阻挠社会福利的公平分配。美式民主的效率性、公平性与合理性已经受到深深的质疑。
"美国经济在全球竞争中一旦落后，它的民主制度立刻就站不住脚"。
这不，美国的知识界精英也开始怀疑他们的民主制度了。
实质还是精英政治，少数人为大多数人做决定
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/opinion/26friedman.html?_r=1&ref=thomaslfriedman
China has at least four going now: one is building a network of ultramodern airports; another is building a web of high-speed trains connecting major cities; a third is in bioscience, where the Beijing Genomics Institute this year ordered 128 DNA sequencers — from America — giving China the largest number in the world in one institute to launch its own stem cell/genetic engineering industry; and, finally, Beijing just announced that it was providing $15 billion in seed money for the country’s leading auto and battery companies to create an electric car industry, starting in 20 pilot cities. In essence, China Inc. just named its dream team of 16-state-owned enterprises to move China off oil and into the next industrial growth engine: electric cars.
Not to worry. America today also has its own multibillion-dollar, 25-year-horizon, game-changing moon shot: fixing Afghanistan.
This contrast is not good.
中国有4个有远见（25年）的大项目：机场网络、高铁网络、生物工程、电动汽车。美国也有一个25年的项目：搞定阿富汗。
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/opinion/28iht-edcohen.html?_r=1
The New American Normal
By ROGER COHEN
Published: September 27, 2010
On a weeklong visit, I found a mood of deep unease in an America that seems to have descended into tribalism — not ethnic, but political, economic and social. Uncertainty is pervasive. The government’s rescue of Wall Street combined with the acute difficulties of a middle class struggling to get by on stagnant or falling incomes has sharpened resentments.
美国陷入了部落主义（tribalism），政府救了华尔街，而置情况糟糕的中产阶级于不顾。
It’s not crazy. Ending the tax cuts for the rich is a minimum signal for a divided land, a statement that the two Americas are acquainted with each other. But with Obama facing a stinging midterm defeat, it looks like a long shot. What is needed above all is some clarity and sense of direction — the kind Cameron has given in London and booming China consistently applies.
美国贫富之间的对立越来越严重了。“美国需要像英国和中国一样，有一个长远的规划。”
http://www.wkrg.com/raw_news/article/despite-economy-americans-dont-take-farm-jobs/968194/Sep-27-2010_8-39-am/#
Despite Economy, Americans Don’t Take Farm Jobs
y (AP) VISALIA, Calif.
Published: Mon, September 27, 2010 - 8:23 am CST
Visalia, California - As the economy tanked during the past two years, a debate has raged over whether immigrants are taking jobs that Americans want. Amid the sweltering vineyards of the nation's largest farm state, the answer is no.
Most Americans simply don't apply for jobs harvesting fruits and vegetables in California, where one of every eight people is out of work, according to government data for a federal seasonal farmworker program analyzed by The Associated Press.
And the few unemployed Americans who apply through official channels usually don't stay on in the fields.
Since January, California farmers have posted ads for 1,160 farmworker positions open to U.S. citizens and legal residents seeking work. Only 233 people applied. One grower brought on 36 people. No one else hired any.
1160个工作岗位，只有233人申请，其中只有36人合格。怎么办？只能找墨西哥人来干。
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/39400494/ns/politics-white_house
Rolling Stone interview
President discusses the Tea Party, the war, the economy, and the midterms
CNN解雇主持人Sanchez，因为骂了犹太人Jon Stewart。
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/cnn-fires-sanchez-after-critiqu-of-stewart/#
CNN Fires Sanchez After Critique of Stewart
By BRIAN STELTER
Rick Sanchez, a daytime anchor at CNN, was fired on Friday, a day after telling a radio interviewer that Jon Stewart was a bigot and that “everybody that runs CNN is a lot like Stewart.”
米犹太厉害了！ 个人还挺喜欢Rick Sanchez 和 Jon Steward的。
注：Jon Steward 10月30日会在林肯纪念堂前面的广场做一个集会，为这次中期选举拉票。
http://www.economist.com/node/17150224
The Economist covers how China is trying to determine the meaning of “
universal values”:
The term “universal values”, or pushi jiazhi, is a new one in Chinese
political debate—surprising given that concepts commonly associated with it
, such as freedom, democracy and human rights, have been bickered over
incessantly for 30 years. Many Chinese scholars think the debate really took
off in 2008 after an earthquake in Sichuan province that killed around 80,
000 people. Ten days after the disaster, a liberal newspaper in the southern
province of Guangdong, Southern Weekend, published an editorial that
praised the government’s swift response. It said it had “honoured its
commitments to its own people and to the whole world with respect to
universal values”.
That single mention of the term was enough to enrage hardliners. A
flurry of commentary appeared in Beijing newspapers and on conservative
websites attacking the idea of universal values as a Western plot to
undermine party rule. China was preparing to host the Olympics in August
2008 with the slogan, “one world, one dream”. But conservatives feared
that embracing universal values would mean acknowledging the superiority of
the West’s political systems. In September, after the games, the party’s
own mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, weighed in. A signed article accused
supporters of universal values of trying to westernise China and turn it
into a laissez-faire economy that would no longer uphold “socialism with
Chinese characteristics”.
评价最高（35人顶）的comment：
价值是文化的孩子，不同的文化必然有不同的价值观。Values are the children of a culture.
Kwin wrote:
Sep 30th 2010 9:02 GMT
What values are "universal"? Is the right to bear arms one of them? How
about the entitlement to jobs? health care? death penalty? privacy? Are
democracy in the US, in Japan are in UK the same? Should the US bring back a
queen or a king, who is above everyone else simply because a luck sperm
finds the correct target? Is this "universal" enough?
And who can claim that the Western model is the best and it would do well in
the rest of the world? What is a good testimony to that? The economic
crisis or the failing state of Afghanistan?
Values are the children of a culture. China needs to absorb western values.
But it needs to do it on its unique cultural foundation. Cloning the "
Western model" is not the answer, not when the "universal" western model
doesn't even exist.
Values are universal only when they are abstract. Nobody in China is arguing
against "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", but rather where the
boundary of "the pursuit of happiness" is in real life. This boundary is
not universal at all. Japan has the most restrictive gun laws and limits the
top speed of cars to 112mph, none of which are acceptable in the US. Even
in the US, the 2nd amendment stops people from bearing nukes and the 1st
amendment stops people from inciting riots. When an individual's pursuit
brings suffering to the others, it should stop, or be stopped.
This article reflects the typical mindset of a proselytic culture, which
itself is Western and not universal.