To feel a change underfoot(脚下正在发生的变化) in American politics, go to Texas. Not to the jumbo-rally(大型集会) in Dallas, where this week Donald Trump tried to marshal(集结、组织) Republicans ahead of the midterms. Look instead at the other guys: the Democrats, and in particular their 36-year-old state-party chair. Last year Kendall Scudder, a self-described “farm kid from east Texas”, entered a seven-way race for that job and, to everyone’s surprise, won. “The donor class, the consultancy class—everybody had a horse in the race(押了宝、有自己支持的候选人),” he says. He was the grassroots choice, unafraid to give the system a “swift kick in the ass”.
要想感受美国政治正在发生的变化，就去得克萨斯州看看。不是去达拉斯那场盛大的集会——本周唐纳德·特朗普在那里试图为中期选举集结共和党人。而要去看看另一拨人：民主党人，尤其是该州那位36岁的党主席。去年，自称“东得州农家子弟”的肯德尔·斯库德参加了这场七人角逐的党主席竞选，令所有人意外的是，他赢了。“金主阶层、顾问阶层——每个人都押了宝，”他说。他是草根的选择，不怕给这个体制来一记“狠狠的窝心脚”。
Mr Scudder describes his progressive-populist(进步民粹主义的) politics as “us versus the corporates, the billionaires, the bootlickin’(舔靴的、谄媚的) bastards trying to take it away from us”. He has appeared at four events in Texas with Bernie Sanders, a democratic-socialist senator. Party honchos(大佬、头目) in Washington like Chuck Schumer, the top-ranking Democrat in the Senate, have failed to meet the moment(把握当下、应对时局), says Mr Scudder. They are too focused on preserving the status quo(维持现状).
斯库德把自己的进步民粹主义政治概括为“我们对抗大企业、亿万富翁，还有那些想夺走我们一切的舔靴混蛋”。他曾与民主社会主义参议员伯尼·桑德斯一起在得克萨斯州出席了四场活动。斯库德说，华盛顿的党内大佬——比如参议院民主党领袖查克·舒默——没能把握当下。他们太专注于维持现状。
Many Democrats elsewhere agree. Mr Scudder is not a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)(美国最大的民主社会主义组织), the group whose rise this summer sent shivers through(让……不寒而栗) the party’s remaining centrists. Rather, he represents a bigger phenomenon, of which the DSA is but one expression: a broad desire among Democratic voters for something new. Left-wing insurgents(叛乱者、造反派) had a banner summer(辉煌的夏天、大获成功的夏天). In Senate primaries(初选) in Florida, Maine, Michigan and Minnesota, they beat centrists favoured by the party establishment.
其他地方许多民主党人也持同样看法。斯库德并非美国民主社会主义者（DSA）成员——该组织今年夏天的崛起让党内残存的中间派不寒而栗。他代表的是一种更大的现象，DSA 只是其中一种表现：民主党选民普遍渴望新东西。左翼“叛乱分子”度过了一个辉煌的夏天。在佛罗里达、缅因、密歇根和明尼苏达的参议院初选中，他们击败了党建制派青睐的中间派候选人。
Divide, conquer?
分而治之？
Blue on blue
蓝对蓝（民主党内部互斗）
Winning the argument
赢得辩论