Episode Details

So let me ask you a question. How many of you do your banking, your health care on your phones? Right, of course you do. How about like, your love life, your entertainment, travel planning, all that kind of stuff? Right. How many of you vote on your phones? That's the problem.

那我问你们一个问题。你们当中有多少人是在手机上处理银行业务或健康事务的？对吧，当然是这样。那你们的恋爱、娱乐、旅行计划这些呢？也是如此，对吧？那有多少人是在手机上投票的？这就是问题所在。

So I spent the first 15 years of my career working in US government and politics. City government, state government, federal government, you name it, I saw it from pretty much every angle. And the main thing that I took away from it, really, more than anything else, is why politicians make the decisions they make. Is it based on what they believe in? No. Is it what's best for their city or their state or their country? Not really. How about what's best for their constituents specifically? Not even that. It's actually a lot simpler. Virtually every politician makes every decision solely based on winning the next election and nothing else. And that's true for the next election and then the next election after that.

我职业生涯的前15年都在美国政府和政治体系中工作。市政府、州政府、联邦政府……你能想到的层级我基本都经历过，从各个角度观察过。而我最大的收获之一就是：为什么政治人物会做出某些决策。他们是基于自己的信仰吗？不是。是为了他们的城市、州或国家的最佳利益吗？也不是。是为了他们选民的最大利益吗？甚至也不是。其实原因简单得多——几乎所有政治人物做每一个决定，都是为了赢得下一次选举，仅此而已。这适用于下一次选举，也适用于再下一次。

And it's a problem in democracies all over the world, but it's especially pervasive in the United States because we have this corrupt practice known as gerrymandering. And what that allows the two political parties to do is divvy up all the legislative districts so that, as a result, the only election that ever really matters is the party primary.

这是全球民主制度中的普遍问题，但在美国尤其严重，因为我们有一种腐败的操作方式，叫做“选区划分操控”（gerrymandering）。这种做法让两个主要政党得以重新划分所有立法选区，结果导致唯一真正重要的选举成了党内初选。

Now we had a big election last fall. You guys might have heard something about it. And in that election, about two thirds of Americans voted. But that was for president. I live in New York City. In 2023, we had city council primaries. Turnout was 7.2 percent. So I don't know if you guys have ever been to New York, but if you have, you will know, we are not a shy people. And yet, in this city of 8.5 million highly opinionated people, you could win a council seat with just 8,000 votes. And the same thing is true in state legislative races, congressional, mayoral, you name it, and it's true everywhere.

我们在去年秋天举行了一场大型选举。你们可能听说过一些情况。在那场选举中，大约有三分之二的美国人投票了，但那是总统选举。我住在纽约市。在2023年，我们举行了市议会初选，投票率只有7.2%。我不知道你们有没有来过纽约