新闻英语词汇: Honest graft

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

Honest graft 诚实的贿赂

Honest graft 指充分利用担任公职时可能出现的赚钱机会。

该词最早出自于约州参议员乔治·华盛顿·普伦凯特George Washington Plunkitt( November 17, 1842 – November 19, 1924)。他在职期间,利用公职带来的便利捞取了大量财富。

参议员普伦凯特位为自己的行为进行了辩解。他认为他的行为是“honest graft”(诚实的贿赂),即同时追求公共利益和个人利益, 而他认为“dishonest graft”指只追求个人利益。例如,普伦凯特自己通过购买土地赚了很多钱,因为他知道土地是公共项目所必需的。他预先购买大量土地,然后以高价转售。

Plunkitt became wealthy by practicing what he called “honest graft” in politics. He was a cynically honest practitioner of what today is generally known as “machine politics,” patronage-based and frank in its exercise of power for personal gain.

普伦凯特有一句载入史册的辩护词:I seen my opportunities and I took ’em.(我看到了我的机会,我接受了。)

Citations
But whether the subject is the Clinton Foundation’s influence-peddling or now the Biden family’s variation on that theme, Trump has always sold himself as the candidate of a more honest form of graft.
—The New York Time by Ross Douthat Sep 24, 2019

—————————————-
“In theory,” Donald Trump told The New York Times on Tuesday, “I could run my business perfectly, and then run the country perfectly.”

That particular theory has a pedigree, and a specific name. It was popularized more than a century ago by George Washington Plunkitt, another flamboyant New York businessman and politician. He dubbed it “honest graft.”
—theatlantic.com by Yoni Appelbaum Nov 25, 2016

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