• Day3
  最近忙得出奇，跳票了好几天～ 今天把最核心的部分补上:D，且看the economists罗列了Trump哪三大条罪状
  明天开始看新文章。

The cult of loyalty to Mr Trump and his base affects government in three ways. First, policymaking suffers as, instead of a coherent programme, America undergoes government by impulse—anger, nativism, mercantilism—beyond the reach of empirical argument. Mr Trump’s first year has included accomplishments: the passage of a big tax cut, a regulatory rollback and the appointment of conservative judges. But most of his policymaking is marked by chaos rather than purpose. He was against the Trans-Pacific trade deal, then for it, then against it again; for gun control, then for arming teachers instead.
Second, the conventions that buttress the constitution’s limits on the president have fallen victim to Mr Trump’s careless selfishness. David Frum, once a speechwriter for George W. Bush, lists some he has broken (and how long they have been observed): a refusal to disclose his tax return (since Gerald Ford), ignoring conflict-of-interest rules (Richard Nixon), running a business for profit (Lyndon Johnson), appointing relatives to senior posts in the administration (John F. Kennedy) and family enrichment by patronage (Ulysses S. Grant).
And third, Mr Trump paints those who stand in his way not as opponents, but as wicked or corrupt or traitors. Mr Trump and his base divide Republicans into good people who support him and bad people who do not—one reason why a record 40 congressional Republicans, including the House Speaker, Paul Ryan, will not seek re-election. The media that are for him are zealous loyalists; those that are not are branded enemies of the people. He has cast judicial investigations by Robert Mueller into his commercial and political links with Russia as a “deep-state” conspiracy. Mr Trump is reportedly toying with firing Mr Mueller or his boss in the Department of Justice. Yet, if a president cannot be investigated without it being counted as treason then, like a king, he is above the law.

词语 Words

coherent adj. 一贯的，连续的，有条理的
If something is coherent, it is well planned, so that it is clear and sensible and all its parts go well with each other.

Impulse n. 冲动，心血来潮
a sudden strong wish or need to do sth, without stopping to think about the results

conventions
一般作“大会”解，其另一个意思是a way of behaving that is considered to be correct or polite by most people in a society（习俗、惯例、常规）。

buttress v. 支持，加强
to support or give strength to sb. / sth.

traitor n. (Uncountable) 卖国贼，叛徒
People who betray their country or a group of which they are a member by helping its enemies, especially during time of war.

treason n. 谋反，叛国
the crime of doing sth that could cause danger to your country, such as helping its enemies during a war

框架 Structure

非常标准的议论文“总+分+举例子”结构。
The cult of loyalty to Mr Trump and his base affects government in three ways : 1) policymaking suffers（政策随性而行，一日三变）, 2) the conventions die（违反各种总统常例，自私自大）, 3)paints opponents as enemies（大搞党朋之风）

讲真这段议论文虽然语言水平保持了一如既往的高标准，但论证却沦为了意气之争，不是特别有意思。大体上就是一个观点+随手举若干黑特朗普的例子。大家如果平时关注美国政治的话，会发现这些不过都是些老梗。（比如arming teachers instead（让老师配枪））
The Economist本期的封面文章居然是这样的一篇文章，多少有些失望吧。

如果大家有兴趣的话，会再写一篇科普下这些美国政坛老梗，感兴趣请call1.

句解Sentences

S1: First, policymaking suffers as, instead of a coherent programme, America undergoes government by impulse—anger, nativism, mercantilism—beyond the reach of empirical argument.
这句话看上去很长，但其实core sentence只有两个单词“Policymaking suffers”, 而“as”（此处为连词）后面则是衔接了一个完整的句子解释policymaking如何suffers。

“instead of a coherent programme, America undergoes government by impulse—anger, nativism, mercantilism—beyond the reach of empirical argument”
美国政府由超出经验论证范围的冲动——愤怒，本土主义，重商主义驱动，而非由一个连贯的计划所指引。

此句的核心对比是“coherent programme”和“impluse”。impluse后破折号用于解释impluse的具体内涵，可视为插入语。此处注意第二个破折号后的内容（beyond….）依然是修饰impluse。

S2: Second, the conventions that buttress the constitution’s limits on the president have fallen victim to Mr Trump’s careless selfishness.
那些符合宪法对总统权力限制的惯例都已沦为特朗普为所欲为的自私的牺牲品。

句子修饰结构较复杂，拆解修饰结构：the conventions [that buttress the constitution’s limits [on the president]] have fallen victim to Mr Trump’s careless selfishness。

Fall victim to 沦为……的牺牲品

S3: And third, Mr Trump paints those who stand in his way not as opponents, but as wicked or corrupt or traitors.
特朗普先生把那些阻碍他的人描绘为邪恶、腐败之徒或是卖国贼，而不是对手。

“paint”在此处意为 give a description of something （描绘），注意词意于“distort”（扭曲）不同，paint可以解读为“真实的描绘”或者是（如此处隐含的那样）“扭曲式描绘”。

S4: Yet, if a president cannot be investigated without it being counted as treason then, like a king, he is above the law.
然而，如果一个总统不能在（对总统发起调查不被视为叛国）的情况下接受调查，那么他（就会像一个君主一样）凌驾于法律之上。

这是一个比较难的句子，难在理解“it”指代了什么。看了一些网上的翻译其实都搞错了意思。
“a president cannot be investigated without it being counted as treason”中treason是“叛国罪”，如果“it”理解为“a president”，那么此处应该为traitor（卖国贼、叛国者），所以此处不能作“a president”理解；此外从句子后面部分中人称代词用“he”来看，也不能将“it”作为无性别的人称代词使用。
因此，正确的理解是“it”指代的是“investigate a president”这个行为。有点玄乎，需要琢磨一下。

再看then后面的部分，“like a king, he is above the law”中“like a king”作为前置定语修饰“he”，这个较为简单，不要把“like a king”修饰对象搞错即可。