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今天继续读The Economist 2018年4月21日刊的封面文章《What has become of the Republican Party》。很快就要周末啦，想在这周日前分享完笔记，于是今天多发一篇。明天的部分是文章主要的议论部分，会长一些～

[正文]
The organising principle of Mr Trump’s Republican Party is loyalty. Not, as with the best presidents, loyalty to an ideal, a vision or a legislative programme, but to just one man—Donald J. Trump—and to the prejudice and rage which consume the voter base that, on occasion, even he struggles to control. In America that is unprecedented and it is dangerous.
Already, some of our Republican readers will be rolling their eyes. They will say that our criticism reveals more about us and our supposed elitism than it does about Mr Trump. But we are not talking here about the policies of Mr Trump’s administration, a few of which we support, many of which we do not and all of which should be debated on their merits. The bigger, more urgent concern is Mr Trump’s temperamentand style of government. Submissive loyalty to one man and the rage he both feeds off and incites is a threat to the shining democracy that the world has often taken as its example.

unprecedented adj. BrE /ʌnˈpresɪdentɪd/
that has never happened, been done or been known before；前所未有的、史无前例的

temperament n. BrE /ˈtemprəmənt/
[uncountable] the tendency to get emotional and excited very easily and behave in an unreasonable way 暴躁、喜怒无常；也作脾气、性格。

feed off 靠…而活
Yet as an audience we feed off their narcissism.
然而作为一个读者，我们正是靠着他们的自我陶醉而活。

Incite v. BrE /ɪnˈsaɪt/ -inciting
to encourage somebody to do something violent, illegal or unpleasant, especially by making them angry or excited; 煽动、鼓动

S1: Not, as with the best presidents, loyalty to an ideal, a vision or a legislative programme, but to just one man—Donald J. Trump—and to the prejudice and rage which consume the voter base that, on occasion, even he struggles to control.

下面重点分析下第二段。此段混合使用了先抑后扬+占领道德高地一套混合拳，将攻击特朗普的动机从立场之争抬升到了美国民主存亡、世界民主走向的高度，写得非常精彩。逐句分析：

S2&3: Already, some of our Republican readers will be rolling their eyes. They will say that our criticism reveals more about us and our supposed elitism than it does about Mr Trump.
不用说，我们的一些共和党读者们想必已经在翻白眼了。他们会说，我们（对特朗普的）抨击揭露更多的是我们自身的丑陋和精英主义，而非是特朗普的粗鄙。

第一句：用了"Roll one’s eyes（翻白眼）"，表示共和党的读者们对"(Loyalty to one man) is dangerous"论断的不屑，非常生动。
第二句：先看经典的"more… than… "结构。我们写作时一般只会用这个结构比较形容词，比如说James is more active than his brother (is)，但其实"more… than…."结构还有很多别的花样。
比较表语 He is more a good friend than a teacher
比较宾语 Our criticism reveals more about us than (it does) about Mr. Trump.
再看"reveal"，其本意是to make something known to somebody, or to show something that previously could not be seen”，并不一定带贬义，这里的用法更接近“揭露、揭示（某种丑闻）”，类似于"expose"。

S4&5: But we are not talking here about the policies of Mr Trump’s administration, a few of which we support, many of which we do not and all of which should be debated on their merits. The bigger, more urgent concern is Mr Trump’s temperamentand style of government.
但我们今天讨论的并非特朗普治下的政策，尽管这些政策中我们仅支持其中寥寥、反对其中的许多、认为其中全部都需要经过实事求是的辩论。更大、更紧迫的担忧在于特朗普的暴躁品性和政府的行事风格。

前面先抑，讲共和党读者未必认同The Economist的论调，但后面并不继续纠缠，而是避重就轻地表示我们今天讨论的重点不是这个，因为我们现在有更重要的事情需要担心——话锋直接转到了特朗普的喜怒无常和执政风格。讨论的重点不是policies那是什么呢？第二句里紧接着给出了答案。
这是不是有种“行行行，我跟你说不清楚，现在没时间跟你吵那些鸡毛蒜皮的，但你必须要明事理、顾大局，要分清楚大是大非”的感觉？绕了一圈，就是换了个高姿态继续diss共和党和特朗普嘛。

注意第一句，避重就轻之余不忘贱兮兮地调侃一下Trump’s policies，用了一串"a few of which…, many of which… and all of which…."定语从句，程度递进，排比工整。此用法可以学习。

S6: Submissive loyalty to one man and the rage he both feeds off and incites is a threat to the shining democracy that the world has often taken as its example.
特朗普所依赖并鼓动的，对其个人和其暴怒脾性服服帖帖式的忠诚，威胁着这个一直被世界视为典范的优秀民主社会。

这个句子修饰语层层嵌套，容易把主语读成submissive loyalty and the rage，但注意be动词是单数，所以实际的主语是submissive loyalty, 但包括了submissive loyalty to one man和submissive loyalty to the rage两部分。拆解如下：
Submissive loyalty [to one man and the rage [he both feeds off and incities]] is a threat to the shining democracy [that the world has often taken as its example]

重点说submissive这个单词。Submissive意为too willing to accept sb else's authority and willing to obey them without questioning anything they want you to do，也即“顺从（权威）、唯命是从、驯服”。
此处Submissive loyalty一下子点出了特朗普所鼓吹的loyalty与真正的loyalty不同，而是一种屈从，并且是不允许个人思考地顺从于某个权威——不知道这有没有引起读者某些敏感的政治联想呢？把特朗普与submissive loyalty和负面的政治联想联系在一起，诛心之语，莫过如此啦。