虽然让人沮丧，希望特朗普式的国情咨文演讲将是最后一次！

Another year, another dreary, partisan State of the Union address, not to mention hundreds of "previews" and after-the-fact analyses parsing the president’s every word. You can find examples of these in this paper and every other; turn on the television and you’ll find talking heads debating whether Donald Trump was "presidential." Why must we put up with this every January?

又过一年，又一场沉闷的、党派之争的国情咨文演讲，更别提数百个“预审”和事后分析，分析总统说过的每一个字。你可以在这篇文章中找到这些例子；打开电视，你会发现有很多人在讨论唐纳德?特朗普(Donald Trump)是不是个称职的“总统”。“为什么我们每年的一月必须做这些?”

Conservatives have long hated the State of the Union. We prefer a small, modest government, and to us the State of the Union has too many trappings of monarchy. The president stands above the Congress and the Supreme Court, telling everybody what to do. That is hardly a fit model for a republic. Many liberals, who now must endure being lectured for an hour by Trump, have also come around to the view that this annual event should cease to exist.

长期以来，保守派一直憎恨国情咨文。我们更倾向于一个小而温和的政府，而对我们来说，这个国情咨文的状态有太多的君主制的束缚。总统站在国会和最高法院之上，告诉每个人该做什么。对于一个共和国来说，这几乎不是一个合适的模式。许多自由派人士，现在必须忍受特朗普一小时的演讲，他们也认为这个一年一度的活动应该停止存在。

The Constitution, it’s true, requires the president "from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." But the Founding Fathers never had in mind the ridiculous spectacle that the State of the Union has become. It has evolved over the centuries in ways that track the changes in the government itself.

事实是，宪法要求总统“不时地向国会提供国情咨文的信息，并建议他们实施某些措施，并可以同时考虑其中的必要性和权宜。”但是开国元勋们从来没有意识到，联邦的现状是多么荒唐可笑。在过去的几个世纪里，它通过追踪政府自身的变化而演变。

For most of the 19th century, the State of the Union was quite different. The president summarized data from the diplomatic corps, the land offices, the Treasury and other executive departments in a written letter to Congress. This was in keeping with the founding view that the Congress was the main branch of government; the job of the president was to help it draft better laws.

在19世纪的大部分时间里，国情咨文的状况是完全不同的。总统在给国会的一封信中总结了外交使团、土地办公室、财政部和其他行政部门的数据。这与国会是政府的主要分支的创始观点相一致;总统的职责是帮助起草更好的法律。

That was basically how the government worked: Congress as the supreme branch, and the executive and courts in a secondary role. There were exceptions, no doubt, like the presidencies of Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. Still, the first 125 years or so of our government really had Congress at the center.

这就是政府的基本工作方式：国会是最高的部门，行政部门和法院居于第二位。当然也有例外，比如安德鲁·杰克逊和亚伯拉罕·林肯的总统任期之时。尽管如此，我们的政府在最初的125年左右的时间里确实以国会为核心。

Everything began to change in the early 1900s. Woodrow Wilson, who sought to assert presidential dominance over the legislature, was also the first to deliver the State of the Union in person in more than a century. He used the occasion not simply to provide useful information, but to jawbone the legislature into approving his agenda. Subsequent presidents followed suit.

20世纪初，一切都开始发生变化。伍德罗·威尔逊(Woodrow Wilson)曾试图在立法机构中确立总统的统治地位，他也是第一个以个人身份发表国情咨文超过一个多世纪的人。他不仅利用这个机会提供有用的信息，而且还利用这个机会让立法机构批准他的议程。随后的总统们也都纷纷效仿。

In the 1960s, the State of the Union was televised for the first time, which changed the political calculus even more. It was no longer about the president trying to influence Congress, but the public at large. The State of the Union became a public-relations opportunity that no president would dare pass up, a rare chance to address tens of millions of Americans.

20世纪60年代，国情咨文发布首次通过电视转播，这改变了政治考量。不再是总统试图影响国会，而是将会影响公众。国情咨文成为了一个改善公共关系的机会，任何总统都不敢错过这个机会，这也是一个来解决数千万美国人问题的难得的机会。

An unfortunate consequence of this shift is all the pandering presidents now do in the State of the Union. They strain to give every major demographic group a shout-out, not to mention the special guests — all attempts to move public opinion.

这种转变带来的一个不幸的转变正是总统们在国情咨文中一味曲意逢迎。他们竭尽全力为主要群体大声疾呼，更不要说那些特别嘉宾都试图改变公众舆论。

This pandering, in turn, has marginalized Congress all the more. What reason do legislators even need to be there? They don’t really learn anything new about the actual state of the American union. On Tuesday night, the legislature was little more than a set piece, as the president tried to sway the broader public to support his agenda.

这种迎合，反过来又使国会更加边缘化。立法者们在那儿又有什么用?他们并没有真正了解美国联邦的实际情况。1月30号晚上的国情咨文演讲中，立法机构跟一个简单的摆设没什么区别，因为总统试图影响更广泛的公众来支持他的议程。

In this way, the State of the Union is sadly representative of our dysfunctional civics. Whereas the Founding Fathers thought that Congress should be the "keystone of the Washington establishment," as political scientist Morris Fiorina once put it, the legislature is now a national laughingstock. Most Americans have long disapproved of the job Congress does, and instead look to the president to actually govern.

这样，现在的国情咨文就是我们机能失调的公民教育的代名词。尽管开国元勋们认为国会应该是“华盛顿建制派的基石”，正如政治学家莫里斯·菲奥瑞纳(Morris Fiorina)曾经说过的那样，立法机构现在成了全国的笑谈。大多数美国人早就不赞成国会的工作，而是指望总统来实际执政。

If I had my way, Tuesday’s State of the Union would be the last of its kind. Let’s go back to the old way of doing things — the president and his advisors summarize relevant information about the country, in writing, to help the legislature govern. No pageantry necessary.

如果有任何办法，星期二那样的国情咨文将是最后一次。让我们回到过去的做事方式，总统和他的顾问们总结有关国家的相关信息，以书面形式，帮助立法机构管理。朴实无华。

More than this, let’s go back to the founding vision that places Congress at the center of our government. For too long, we have assumed that strong presidential leadership is enough to run a nation as big and diverse as ours — and have let Congress fall to pieces. Underfunded, understaffed, too quick to pass problems off to the executive and the courts, the Congress of 2018 is simply incapable of being the first branch of the government. We need to fix that.

更重要的是，让我们回到建国的愿景，把国会置于我们政府的中心。长期以来，我们一直认为，强大的总统领导能力足以让一个像我们这样庞大而多样化的国家运转，或早就让国会分崩离析。由于资金不足、人手不足、过于迅速地将问题转嫁给高管和法院，2018年的国会根本无法成为政府的第一个分支。我们当下需要解决这个问题。

All of us — Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives — should channel our civic energy into reinvigorating Congress, to make it more useful than a pretty backdrop for yet another State of the Union speech.

我们所有的共和党人、民主党人、自由派人士和保守派人士，都应该把我们的公民精力投入到重振国会中，使之更有用，而不是成为另一种国情咨文演讲的摆设。