民主黨人患了SARS
退回到上個世紀50年代，美國的民主黨曾竭力發展現代的福利國家體系，該體系是早在20年以前羅斯?？偨y執政期間所創立的。當時某些共和黨人批評國會中的共和黨議員不僅過分地與民主黨人合作，而且還聽他們領導。這些批評家們嘲笑這樣的議員是“Me too”（我也這樣想）共和黨人，因為只要民主黨人宣稱他們打算推出一種新的社會福利項目，據說這些政客們就會說“Me too”。
根據漫畫家斯圖爾特-卡爾森的觀點，這種情況如今顛倒過來了。當共和黨人在華盛頓領導著對伊拉克的戰爭全局，而且推行著減稅政策時（盡管減稅對預算赤字和社會福利支出都造成了沖擊），很多美國人在想，民主黨人都怎么了？為什么他們不能更大膽地向共和黨人的政策提出挑戰？卡爾森把民主黨描畫成一只神經緊張的驢，它舉著一個牌子，上面寫著“Me， too！”
卡爾森還給出了診斷：民主黨人得了SARS――此處他可不是指當今流行的非典型性肺炎，而是可怕的“對共和黨人賠笑默許綜合癥”（該短語的英文縮寫也是SARS）?？柹搬t生”還好心地在他的“健康警告”中列出了一系列“SARS”的癥狀。中國的讀者會發現，除了最后一項這些癥狀都是一看便知的。下面就說說最后一項。在英語中，當政府官員、公司總裁以及其他類似群體的人為了避免批評而采取某種措施時就會被說成是在“保護屁股”。這個短語的原意是士兵知道在他前方發生了什么，但對于后面有什么正在逼近就知道得少多了。若要避免遭到突然襲擊，就得留意后面。
勇敢的行為總會招致批評。如果議員們總是“保護屁股”，那么，就采取行動與不采取行動所產生的兩種后果而言，他們恐怕就會更憂慮前者了。但在政治上無聲無息又取得了什么呢？
民主黨人患了SARS
Back in the 1950s the Demo-cratic Party was striving to expand the modern welfare state that had been founded during the administra-tion of President Franklin Roosevelt 20 years earlier. Certain Republicans criticized GOP①legislators in Congress for being too willing not just to cooperate with Democrats， but to follow their lead. Critics derided such lawmakers as "me too" Republi-cans because whenever the Democrats announced that they wanted to create a new social pro-gram， these politicians allegedly replied， "Me too！"
According to Stuart Carlson， this situation has now been reversed. As Republicans lead the war effort in Washington and push to reduce taxes despite the impact of a tax cut on the budget deficit or social spending， many Americans wonder what has happened to the Democrats. Why are they not challenging the Republicans more boldly？ Stuart Carlson depicts the Democratic Party as a nervous donkey holding up a sign that says "Me， too！"
Carlson has a diagnosis to offer： the Dems are suffering from "SARS" - only he means not a rampant form of pneumonia but the dreaded "Simpering Acquiescence to Republicans Syndrome". And Dr Carlson kindly posts a list of symptoms in his "health alert". Chi-nese readers will find all except the last self-explanatory. In English， public officials， corporate executives and the like are said to "cover their tails" when they take steps to avoid criticism. The idea is that a soldier is aware of what is happening in front of him， but much less so of what is approaching from the rear. He needs to pay attention to what lies in back of him if he wants to avoid surprise attacks.
Bold action always draws criticism. If legislators are always "covering their tails"， then they're probably more worried about the consequences of acting than about the consequences of doing nothing. And what has doing nothing ever achieved in politics？
健康警告！
SARS（對共和黨人賠笑默許綜合癥）繼續困擾國會山
癥狀如下：
★聲帶麻痹
★脊椎軟化到酸奶似的程度
★在被問及任何有關愛國主義的問題時都會大汗淋漓
★條件反射般地用枕頭或其它軟物保護屁股
英語 幽默本文地址：http://www.hengchuai.cn/writing/humor/47155.html
