Longreads Best of 2017: Political Writing
We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories.
我们要求作家和编辑在不同类别中选择一些他们今年最喜欢的故事。
Here is the best in political writing.
这是最好的政治写作。
Gabriel ShermanSpecial correspondent for Vanity Fair and author of the New York Times best-selling biography of Roger Ailes.
加布里埃尔·谢尔曼（Gabriel Sherman）《名利场》特约记者，《纽约时报》畅销罗杰·艾尔斯传记的作者。
## The French Origins of ‘You Will Not Replace Us’ (Thomas Chatterton Williams, The New Yorker)
## “你不会取代我们”的法国起源（托马斯·查特顿·威廉姆斯，《纽约客》）
Anyone wanting to understand the forces that propelled Donald Trump to power needs to read Thomas Chatterton Williams’s fascinating profile of the French racial theorist Renaud Camus.
任何想要了解推动唐纳德·特朗普掌权的力量的人都需要阅读托马斯·查特顿·威廉姆斯对法国种族理论家雷诺·加缪的精彩描述。
Camus — no relation to Albert — popularized the alt-right theory that Muslim immigrants are reverse colonizing “white” Western Europe through mass migration.
加缪（与阿尔伯特无关）普及了另类右翼理论，即穆斯林移民通过大规模移民反向殖民“白人”西欧。
He is an unlikely progenitor of a political movement built around closing borders and preserving traditional culture.
他不太可能是一场围绕关闭边界和保护传统文化的政治运动的先驱。
Camus works out of a 14th-century chateau and once wrote a travel book that describes itself as “a sexual odyssey — man-to-man.” Allan Ginsberg once said, “Camus’s world is completely that of a new urban homosexual; at ease in half a dozen countries.” While Williams doesn’t shy away from shining a light on the ugly racism that underpins Camus’s writings, he challenges liberals to reckon with the social and cultural effects of immigration in an increasingly globalized world.
加缪在一座 14 世纪的城堡里工作，曾写过一本游记，将自己描述为“一场性的奥德赛——男人对男人”。艾伦·金斯伯格曾说过：“加缪的世界完全是一个新的都市同性恋者的世界；在六个国家里逍遥自在。”虽然威廉姆斯并不回避揭露加缪著作中丑陋的种族主义，但他挑战自由主义者在日益全球化的世界中正视移民的社会和文化影响。
Vanessa GrigoriadisAuthor of Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus, and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair.
凡妮莎·格里戈里亚迪斯（Vanessa Grigoriadis）是《模糊界线：重新思考校园中的性、权力和同意》一书的作者，也是《纽约时报》杂志和《名利场》的撰稿人。
## Alt-White: How the Breitbart Machine Laundered Racist Hate (Joseph Bernstein, Buzzfeed)
## Alt-White：布赖特巴特新闻网如何洗刷种族主义仇恨（约瑟夫·伯恩斯坦，Buzzfeed）
Back in the naive days of 2010, when James O’Keefe posed as a pimp to disgrace community group ACORN, I thought I’d write a story about the new wave of post-collegiate conservatives.
早在 2010 年天真的日子里，当詹姆斯·奥基夫 (James O’Keefe) 冒充皮条客来羞辱社区团体 ACORN 时，我就想写一个关于后大学时代保守派新浪潮的故事。
A friend put me in contact with Andrew Breitbart, and I met him at his modern home in Los Angeles, next to the freeway, with the Big Government offices in the basement.
一位朋友让我联系了安德鲁·布赖特巴特，我在他位于洛杉矶的现代住宅中见到了他，靠近高速公路，大政府办公室位于地下室。
He was gracious but told me he did not have any leads; it was clear that he preferred that I write about him.
他很和蔼可亲，但告诉我他没有任何线索；很明显，他更喜欢我写他的故事。
As I left, I expressed some libtard sentiment, and I suddenly saw the real Breitbart, yelling and balling his fists and turning bright red.
当我离开时，我表达了一些自由主义的情绪，我突然看到了真正的布赖特巴特新闻网，他大喊大叫，握紧拳头，脸变成鲜红色。
I wish I’d attached myself to Breitbart until his death from a heart attack a couple years later, and continued following the company after that.
我希望自己一直关注布赖特巴特新闻网，直到几年后他因心脏病去世，并在那之后继续关注该公司。
His unconventional media company morphed into a weapon against traditional conservatism, the alt-right’s version of Vice.
他的非传统媒体公司变成了反对传统保守主义的武器，即另类右翼版本的 Vice。
(Where I’ve heard in an interesting piece of gossip, Steve Bannon’s nephew works today).
（我在一个有趣的八卦中听说过，史蒂夫·班农的侄子今天在工作）。
Joshua Green’s recent book Devil’s Bargain and Gabriel Sherman’s end of year Vanity Fair tag-along with Steve Bannon were excellent, but for sheer reading pleasure, nothing tops Joseph Bernstein’s BuzzFeed story about Breitbart as an alt-right “killing machine,” to use Bannon’s phrase.
约书亚·格林 (Joshua Green) 的新书《魔鬼讨价还价》(Devil’s Bargain) 以及加布里埃尔·谢尔曼 (Gabriel Sherman) 与史蒂夫·班农 (Steve Bannon) 在年终名利场上的合作都非常出色，但就纯粹的阅读乐趣而言，没有什么比约瑟夫·伯恩斯坦 (Joseph Bernstein) 在 BuzzFeed 上发表的故事更胜一筹了。
I don’t know who leaked Breitbart’s crazy internal emails to BuzzFeed, which form the basis for this story, but my money’s on the guy who ghostwrites Milo Yiannopolous’s essays.
我不知道是谁将 Breitbart 的疯狂内部电子邮件泄露给了 BuzzFeed，这些邮件构成了这个故事的基础，但我的钱押在了代写 Milo Yiannopolous 文章的那个人身上。
Could there be any worse job, even in today’s media universe?
即使在今天的媒体世界里，还有比这更糟糕的工作吗？
Chris SmithThe author of The Daily Show (The Book), a contributor to Vanity Fair, and a contributing editor at New York Magazine.
克里斯·史密斯（Chris Smith）是《每日秀》（The Daily Show）的作者、《名利场》杂志的撰稿人、《纽约杂志》的特约编辑。
## Down the Breitbart Hole (Wil Hylton, The New York Times Magazine)
## Down the Breitbart Hole（威尔·希尔顿，纽约时报杂志）
Hylton’s feature has both stylish writing and great access to a world that doesn’t often open itself up to mainstream media.
希尔顿的专题片既具有时尚的写作风格，又可以很好地进入一个不经常向主流媒体开放的世界。
Bonus points for timing, though I’m still not sure if it was great or terrible: The story was published days before Steve Bannon was fired as Trump’s chief political strategist …
时机的加分，尽管我仍然不确定它是好是坏：这个故事是在史蒂夫·班农被特朗普解雇为特朗普首席政治策略师的几天前发表的……
and went straight back to Breitbart.
然后直接回到布赖特巴特新闻网。
## Johnstown Never Believed Trump Would Help.
## 约翰斯敦从不相信特朗普会帮忙。
They Still Love Him Anyway (Michael Kruse, Politico)
无论如何，他们仍然爱他（迈克尔·克鲁斯，Politico）
Plenty of bigots and sexists voted for Trump — so did a lot of people with real problems.
许多偏执者和性别歧视者投票支持特朗普——许多有实际问题的人也投票支持特朗普。
It was delusional to think Trump would fix them, of course, but what’s more important to try to comprehend is why sane but hopeless voters back Trump anyway.
当然，认为特朗普会解决这些问题是一种妄想，但更重要的是要尝试理解为什么理智但绝望的选民无论如何都会支持特朗普。
Kruse does a great job of getting at the Pennsylvania version of this phenomenon.
克鲁斯很好地诠释了这一现象的宾夕法尼亚版本。
## The Resegregation of Jefferson County (Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine)
## 杰斐逊县的重新种族隔离（Nikole Hannah-Jones，纽约时报杂志）
Hannah-Jones was prescient in highlighting some of the issues that would come into play in the Roy Moore-Doug Jones Senate race, detailing tensions and policies that are fueling racial and economic divisions across the country.
汉娜-琼斯很有先见之明地强调了罗伊·摩尔-道格·琼斯参议员竞选中将发挥作用的一些问题，详细说明了加剧全国种族和经济分歧的紧张局势和政策。
## The Danger of President Pence (Jane Mayer, The New Yorker)
## 彭斯总统的危险（简·梅尔，《纽约客》）
A classic piece of deep reporting, including insightful, damning stuff from Pence’s relatives, plus a useful pocket history of the big money conservative world that spawned the vice president, and how he opportunistically became a Koch brothers tool when his political career was hitting a dead end.
这是一篇经典的深度报道，包括来自彭斯亲属的富有洞察力和谴责性的内容，以及产生副总统的大钱保守派世界的有用袖珍历史，以及当他的政治生涯陷入死胡同时，他如何机会主义地成为科赫兄弟的工具。
## What Putin Really Wants (Julia Ioffe, The Atlantic)
## 普京真正想要什么（Julia Ioffe，大西洋月刊）
Trump / Russia has been 2017’s biggest political story, and while Ioffe has broken news on Don Jr. and Wikileaks this year, she has also made sense of the big picture, as she does here.
特朗普/俄罗斯是 2017 年最大的政治事件，虽然 Ioffe 今年在小唐和维基解密上爆出了新闻，但她也了解了大局，就像她在这里所做的那样。
Her background in Russian politics is invaluable and her writing always clear, no matter how complicated the games and players she’s explaining.
她在俄罗斯政治方面的背景是无价的，无论她解释的游戏和玩家多么复杂，她的写作总是清晰。
## Why the Scariest Nuclear Threat May Be Coming From Inside the White House (Michael Lewis, Vanity Fair)
## 为什么最可怕的核威胁可能来自白宫内部（迈克尔·刘易斯，《名利场》）
Lewis strays from the daily fray and digs deep into the Department of Energy to explore how dangerous Trumpism is to a functional government — not just now, but for decades to come.
刘易斯偏离了日常争论，深入研究了能源部，探讨特朗普主义对一个正常运作的政府有多么危险——不仅是现在，而且是未来几十年。
As this compellingly readable and horrifying story shows, Trump is on the verge of crippling America’s next generation of scientists and increasing the risk we’ll lose track of our nuclear weapons.
正如这个引人入胜且令人恐惧的故事所表明的那样，特朗普正处于削弱美国下一代科学家并增加我们失去核武器追踪的风险的边缘。
Sarah JonesStaff writer, The New Republic
莎拉·琼斯《新共和》特约撰稿人
## Going It Alone (Rahawa Haile, Outside)
## 独自行动（Rahawa Haile，外面）
Haile starts her essay out in Damascus, Virginia, very close to where I grew up and where my grandfather lives now.
海尔的论文是在弗吉尼亚州的大马士革开始的，那里离我长大的地方和我祖父现在住的地方很近。
This piece really forced me to think about how a space that feels so much like home can feel to a person of color.
这件作品确实迫使我思考一个非常像家的空间对于有色人种来说会有什么感觉。
It also illustrates something that’s important to me, which is that writing doesn’t have to be horse race analysis to be political.
它还说明了对我来说很重要的一点，那就是写作不一定是赛马分析才具有政治性。
Mark ArmstrongFounder, Longreads
马克·阿姆斯特朗Longreads 创始人
## The First White President (Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic)
##第一位白人总统（Ta-Nehisi Coates，大西洋月刊）
Say one thing for the news media’s endless parade of feature stories about Trump voters: Publish enough of them and the truth will finally reveal itself.
对于新闻媒体关于特朗普选民的无休无止的专题报道，我想说一件事：发表足够多的报道，真相最终会浮出水面。
In The New York Times‘s March 2016 roundup, “This Is Trump Country,” we heard stories of economic uncertainty and jobs disappearing:
在《纽约时报》 2016 年 3 月的综述“这是特朗普国家”中，我们听到了有关经济不确定性和就业岗位消失的故事：
I think most people here realize this is a big opportunity to change the economy,” he said.
我认为这里的大多数人都意识到这是改变经济的巨大机会，”他说。
“Who better to change the economy than a businessman?
“还有谁比商人更能改变经济呢？
Fast forward to November 2017, where Michael Kruse took the pulse of Trump voters in Johnstown, Pennsylvania:
快进到 2017 年 11 月，迈克尔·克鲁斯 (Michael Kruse) 为宾夕法尼亚州约翰斯敦的特朗普选民把脉：
The thing that irritates me to no end is this NFL shit,” Schilling told me in her living room.
最让我恼火的是 NFL 的狗屎，”席林在她的客厅里告诉我。
“I’m about ready to go over the top with this shit.
“我已经准备好用这件事来超越了。
We do not watch no NFL now.” They’re Dallas Cowboys fans.
我们现在不看 NFL 了。”他们是达拉斯牛仔队的球迷。
“We banned ’em.
“我们禁止他们。
We don’t watch it.”Schilling looked at her husband, Dave McCabe, who’s 67 and a retired high school basketball coach.
我们不看。”席林看着她的丈夫戴夫·麦凯布 (Dave McCabe)，他 67 岁，是一名退休的高中篮球教练。
She nodded at me.
她向我点点头。
“Tell him,” she said to McCabe, “what you said the NFL is …”McCabe looked momentarily wary.
“告诉他，”她对麦凯布说，“你所说的 NFL 是……” 麦凯布显得有些警惕。
He laughed a little.
他笑了笑。
“I don’t remember saying that,” he said unconvincingly.Schilling was having none of it.
“我不记得说过这样的话。”他语气不那么令人信服。席林却对此不以为意。
“You’re the one that told me, liar,” she said.She looked at me.The NFL?“Niggers for life,” Schilling said.“For life,” McCabe added.
“是你告诉我的，骗子，”她说。她看着我。NFL？“终生的黑鬼，”席林说。“终生的，”麦凯布补充道。
The thing that irritates me to no end is this NFL shit,” Schilling told me in her living room.
最让我恼火的是 NFL 的狗屎，”席林在她的客厅里告诉我。
“I’m about ready to go over the top with this shit.
“我已经准备好用这件事来超越了。
We do not watch no NFL now.” They’re Dallas Cowboys fans.
我们现在不看 NFL 了。”他们是达拉斯牛仔队的球迷。
“We banned ’em.
“我们禁止他们。
We don’t watch it.”
我们不看。”
Schilling looked at her husband, Dave McCabe, who’s 67 and a retired high school basketball coach.
席林看着她的丈夫戴夫·麦凯布 (Dave McCabe)，他 67 岁，是一名退休的高中篮球教练。
She nodded at me.
她向我点点头。
“Tell him,” she said to McCabe, “what you said the NFL is …”
“告诉他，”她对麦凯布说，“你所说的 NFL 是……”
McCabe looked momentarily wary.
麦凯布显得有些警惕。
He laughed a little.
他笑了笑。
“I don’t remember saying that,” he said unconvincingly.
“我不记得这么说过。”他语气不那么令人信服。
Schilling was having none of it.
席林对此一无所知。
“You’re the one that told me, liar,” she said.
“你是告诉我的人，骗子，”她说。
She looked at me.
她看着我。
The NFL?
国家橄榄球联盟？
“Niggers for life,” Schilling said.
“终生都是黑鬼，”席林说。
“For life,” McCabe added.
“一生，”麦凯布补充道。
Few writers have done more to expose the racist truth of the Trump presidency than Ta-Nehisi Coates, who followed Trump from his birtherism roots to a presidency with no coherent mission other than to reject anything Obama supported.
很少有作家比塔内西西·科茨（Ta-Nehisi Coates）更能揭露特朗普总统任期内的种族主义真相，他追随特朗普从出生论根源到总统任期，除了拒绝奥巴马支持的任何事情之外，没有任何连贯的使命。
Even as Trump recently reversed an Obama-era stance, massively reducing the size of Bears Ear National Monument, I recall Coates’s words: “Trump truly is something new — the first president whose entire political existence hinges on the fact of a black president.”
尽管特朗普最近扭转了奥巴马时代的立场，大幅缩小了熊耳国家纪念碑的规模，但我仍然记得科茨的话：“特朗普确实是一个新事物——第一个整个政治存在都取决于黑人总统这一事实的总统。”
“The First White President” is an excerpt from We Were Eight Years in Power, a collection of Coates’s essays from The Atlantic spanning the Obama era and now its dispiriting lurch backward.
《第一位白人总统》摘自《我们执政八年》，这是一本科茨在《大西洋月刊》上发表的文章集，涵盖了奥巴马时代和现在令人沮丧的倒退时期。
Within the first sentence, Coates answers the critical question: How could a person with zero political experience, a career of bullying, sexual assault allegations, and unethical business practices, ascend to the country’s highest office?
在第一句话中，科茨回答了一个关键问题：一个政治经验为零、职业生涯充满欺凌、性侵犯指控和不道德商业行为的人如何能够登上国家最高职位？
“It is insufficient to state the obvious of Donald Trump: that he is a white man who would not be president were it not for this fact.”
“仅仅陈述唐纳德·特朗普的一个显而易见的事实是不够的：如果不是这个事实，他是一个白人，不会成为总统。”
Mike DangEditor-in-chief, Longreads
Mike DangLongreads 主编
## Donald Trump’s Worst Deal (Adam Davidson, The New Yorker)
## 唐纳德·特朗普最糟糕的交易（亚当·戴维森，《纽约客》）
In a year when headlines were dominated by soap opera-like entrances and exits within the Trump administration — so long, Sean Spicer, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, Omarosa, and the Mooch — I was grateful when reporters like Adam Davidson took the time to dive deep into President Trump’s business background, revealing the way he operates and has always operated.
在这一年里，头条新闻充斥着特朗普政府内部肥皂剧般的进出——一直以来，肖恩·斯派塞、赖因斯·普里巴斯、史蒂夫·班农、奥马罗萨和穆奇——我很感激像亚当·戴维森这样的记者花时间深入了解特朗普总统的商业背景，揭示他的运作方式以及一直以来的运作方式。
In “Donald Trump’s Worst Deal,” Davidson looks into the building of a Trump hotel in Azerbaijan, which is linked to notoriously corrupt oligarchs and financiers of terrorism.
在《唐纳德·特朗普最糟糕的交易》中，戴维森调查了阿塞拜疆特朗普酒店的建设，该酒店与臭名昭著的腐败寡头和恐怖主义金融家有关。
Did the Trump Organization knowingly work with a corrupt partner, or did its lax vetting process accidentally expose it to “terrorist financing, sanctions, money laundering, and other imprudent associations through their business holdings and connections”?
特朗普集团是否故意与腐败的合作伙伴合作，或者其松懈的审查程序是否意外地将其暴露于“通过其业务控股和关系而参与恐怖主义融资、制裁、洗钱和其他不审慎的组织”？
Either way, none of this inspires confidence that Trump is fit to be president.
不管怎样，这一切都无法激发人们对特朗普适合担任总统的信心。
Dana SnitzkyBooks editor, Longreads
达纳·斯尼茨基 (Dana Snitzky) 长读图书编辑
## Democratic House Candidates Were Also Targets of Russian Hacking (Eric Lipton and Scott Shane, The New York Times)
## 民主党众议院候选人也是俄罗斯黑客攻击的目标（Eric Lipton 和 Scott Shane，《纽约时报》）
I’m sneaking in this report from December 2016 because it has colored my understanding of the Trump-Russia scandal for all of 2017.
我偷偷阅读 2016 年 12 月的这份报告，因为它影响了我 2017 年对特朗普-俄罗斯丑闻的理解。
The Times revealed that the D.C.C.C.
《泰晤士报》透露，D.C.C.C.
had also been hacked by Guccifer 2.0, and that the hackers had reached out to local journalists and bloggers in some of the most competitive House races in the country, hoping to damage the Democrats.
也遭到了 Guccifer 2.0 的黑客攻击，黑客已经在该国一些竞争最激烈的众议院竞选中联系了当地记者和博主，希望损害民主党。
The scandalously under-reported fact of Russian support for Republicans in the House, and the free use most Republican candidates made of the hacked materials provided by Russian hackers calls into question the integrity of a many more people than Trump and his inner circle.
俄罗斯对众议院共和党人的支持这一令人震惊的报道不足，以及大多数共和党候选人随意使用俄罗斯黑客提供的黑客材料，使人们对特朗普及其核心圈子之外的更多人的诚信产生了质疑。
As the political commentator Heather Digby Parton wrote in March,
正如政治评论家希瑟·迪格比·帕顿 (Heather Digby Parton) 在三月份所写的那样：
Republican congressional leaders must be thanking their lucky stars daily that the Trump administration is such a scandal-ridden Dumpster fire.
共和党国会领导人必须每天感谢他们的幸运星，因为特朗普政府是丑闻缠身的垃圾箱大火。
If things ever calm down in the White House, somebody might just turn his or her attention to the question of what Paul Ryan knew and when.
如果白宫的局势平静下来，有人可能会把注意力转向保罗·瑞安知道什么以及何时知道的问题。
Michelle LegroSenior editor, Longreads
Michelle LegroLongreads 高级编辑
## Rise of the Valkyries (Seyward Darby, Harper’s)
## 《女武神的崛起》（Seyward Darby，Harper’s）
The public face of the alt-right has been overwhelmingly male, trading in the masculine for its displays of power.
另类右翼的公众形象绝大多数是男性，他们用男性气质来展示权力。
But the women of the alt-right have been hard at work in their own way, gathering power in a system that would be considered deeply misogynist by most.
但另类右翼的女性一直在以自己的方式努力工作，在一个被大多数人认为极度厌恶女性的体系中聚集权力。
Darby confronts these women head on, but also considers what kinds of confrontation are useful when reporting on these kinds of hate groups.
达比与这些女性正面对峙，但也考虑了在报道这些仇恨团体时什么样的对抗是有用的。
This is a fascinating portrait of a subversion of femininity and power that stretches back to the origins of the KKK, where women were a driving influence in the spread of white supremacy.
这是一幅对女性气质和权力颠覆的迷人描绘，可以追溯到三K党的起源，在那里，女性在白人至上主义的传播中发挥了推动作用。