新闻英语词汇: filibuster

新闻英语词汇随着人类社会的快节奏发展而发生着日新月异的变化。学习新闻英语对于提高英语水平和拓宽知识面非常重要。掌握欧美网络报刊常用英语政治词汇有助于阅读和理解当今欧美主流媒体的新闻时事报道,了解国内外局势和世界的发展方向。

儒琴新闻英语词汇 Journalism Vocabulary

filibuster  
/ˈfɪl.ɪ.bʌs.tər/ verb or noun] mainly US 

to make a long speech in order to delay or prevent a new law being made(为拖延或阻止新法律的通过而)发表冗长的演说 (Cambridge)。根据上下文,可以考虑翻成:阻挠议事的做法;拖延战术;阻碍议事的手法;程序性阻挠议事;阻挠议事(动词)等。

美国参议院官网给出 Filibuster 一词的定义是:filibuster – Informal term for any attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter by debating it at length, by offering numerous procedural motions, or by any other delaying or obstructive actions. (filibuster—非正式用语,指通过冗长的辩论,提出大量的程序动议,或任何其他拖延或阻碍行为对参议院法案或其他事项采取行动来阻止或拖延的行动。)

参议院历史办公室表示:“利用讲废话来拖延或阻止立法行动由来已久。 filibuster一词源自荷兰语,意思是“海盗”从1850年代开始流行,当时该词用于阻止参议院投票以阻止对法案进行投票的努力。

“在国会成立初期,代表们和参议员都可能会受到阻挠。但是,随着众议院人数的增加,众议院修订了限制了辩论的规则。但在在人数相对少的参议院中,目前还存在继续进行无休止辩论的可能性,理由是任何参议员都有权在任何问题上有必要的话语权。

历史上,参议员斯特罗姆·瑟蒙德(R-SC)企图阻止1957年《民权法案》,是最长的反对者。尽管他坚持在台上发言了24小时18分钟,但法案在他停止讲话后仅两个小时就通过了。

原文举例
We have some good news for unity-craving Republicans: Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are now on the same page with respect to one of the more important topics of the day. During a new podcast interview, the former president said “it will be catastrophic for the Republican Party” if Democrats ended the filibuster, and he seemed to back McConnell’s efforts to prevent that from happening.
对于渴望团结的共和党人来说,我们有一些好消息: 唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)和米奇·麦康奈尔(Mitch McConnell)现在在当今一个更重要的话题上达成了一致。在一次新的播客采访中,前总统特朗普说,如果民主党结束阻挠议事的做法(the filibuster,),“这对共和党来说将是灾难性的”。他似乎支持麦康奈尔阻止这种情况发生的努力。

This is an interesting, if not terribly surprising, development for the most erratic president since Andrew Johnson. Trump started attacking the filibuster fairly early in his administration, commenting in an April 2017 Fox News interview:
对于这位自安德鲁•约翰逊(Andrew Johnson)以来最古怪的总统来说,这是一个有趣的进展,如果说不是非常令人惊讶。特朗普在2017年4月接受福克斯新闻采访时就开始攻击拖延战术(the filibuster):

The filibuster concept is not a good concept to start off with, but if you’re going to filibuster, let somebody stand up for 20 hours and talk and do what they have to do, or even if they are reading comic books to everybody, let them do it but honestly, the whole with so many bad concepts in our rules, and it’s forcing bad decisions.
阻挠议事(the filibuster)的概念并不是一个开头的好概念, 但是如果你要阻挠议事, 让别人站在那里20个小时, 交谈,做他们必须做的事, 甚至如果他们给每个人朗读漫画书, 让他们做, 但老实说, 在我们整个规则整里有这么多坏的规则, 迫使我们做出糟糕的决定。

(nymag.com March, 20121)

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