正文
《星光灿烂的旗帜》：
正文：
Commitment to liberalism once distinguished the United States. Now it stands apart for the disregard of its elites for the troubles of so many of their fellow-citizens.
对自由主义的不离不弃曾一度使美国鹤立鸡群，但如今使它与众不同的，却是国家精英对他们同胞公民困境的不管不顾。
Tomorrow, the Fourth of July, Americans will celebrate their independence, the birth of a free nation. Leading the celebrations will be a president mysteriously dependent on a foreign power—a president who lavishly praises dictators and publicly despises the institutions of freedom, not only the free press but also an independent judiciary and other constitutional restraints on his will.
明天就是独立日，美国人将庆祝的是他们的独立，以及一个自由国家的诞生。带领人们欢庆节日的，是一位与外国势力有着说不清道不明的关联的总统——这位总统对独裁者不吝赞美之词，公开表达对自由制度的鄙薄，而且他厌恶的不光是媒体自由，也包括独立的司法体系等等对他个人意愿的法律约束。
This is a Fourth tinged with sad ironies. Can we put the occasion to any good use? Near the end of a much more terrible national ordeal, Abraham Lincoln urged Americans: "Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this, as philosophy to learn wisdom from.” Good advice. We should try.
这是一次具有悲哀讽刺意义的国庆节。那我们能不能让它起点正面作用呢？就在历史上的另一场远比今日更加可怕的国难（
冬天毛注：指南北战争
）临近末尾时，亚伯拉罕·林肯曾这样敦促美国人们：“故而，就让我们探究这一次的事件，一如从哲学当中汲取智慧。”这建议不错，我们应该试试。
A traditional theme of the rhetoric of the Fourth is the celebration of “American exceptionalism.” That phrase has acquired a boastful overtone, which is why President Obama famously handled it so diffidently. "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."
在有关国庆节的论调中，对“美国例外主义”的赞美是一个传统主题。人们在使用这个说法时，渐渐带有了一股子自豪感，这也是为什么奥巴马总统的那句著名的发言要采用那么腼腆的说法：“我相信美国例外主义，一如我怀疑英国人并不相信英国例外主义、希腊人并不相信希腊例外主义。”
“American exceptionalism" began its career, however, not as a boast, but as a question.
然而，“美国例外主义”最初并不是一种赞美，而是一种质疑。
“Why is there no socialism in the United States?” asked a Marxist German in 1906. According to Marxist ideology, the United States—as the most highly developed capitalist nation—should have led the way toward proletarian class-consciousness. When that did not happen, Marxists squirmed to explain the deficiency away. Non-Marxists took up the inquiry after World War II. With a Labor government nationalizing railways and steelworks in Britain—Germany shattered by Nazism—and communism holding Russia, China, and half of Europe in its grip, the United States stood out as a lonely beacon of liberalism. Again America seemed a special case that needed explaining. This time the explanations came from fellow-liberals who admired the American exception, which is how the phrase acquired its secondary and more positive meaning.
