民主党人患了SARS
退回到上个世纪50年代，美国的民主党曾竭力发展现代的福利国家体系，该体系是早在20年以前罗斯福总统执政期间所创立的。当时某些共和党人批评国会中的共和党议员不仅过分地与民主党人合作，而且还听他们领导。这些批评家们嘲笑这样的议员是“Me too”（我也这样想）共和党人，因为只要民主党人宣称他们打算推出一种新的社会福利项目，据说这些政客们就会说“Me too”。
根据漫画家斯图尔特-卡尔森的观点，这种情况如今颠倒过来了。当共和党人在华盛顿领导着对伊拉克的战争全局，而且推行着减税政策时（尽管减税对预算赤字和社会福利支出都造成了冲击），很多美国人在想，民主党人都怎么了？为什么他们不能更大胆地向共和党人的政策提出挑战？卡尔森把民主党描画成一只神经紧张的驴，它举着一个牌子，上面写着“Me， too！”
卡尔森还给出了诊断：民主党人得了SARS――此处他可不是指当今流行的非典型性肺炎，而是可怕的“对共和党人赔笑默许综合症”（该短语的英文缩写也是SARS）。卡尔森“医生”还好心地在他的“健康警告”中列出了一系列“SARS”的症状。中国的读者会发现，除了最后一项这些症状都是一看便知的。下面就说说最后一项。在英语中，当政府官员、公司总裁以及其他类似群体的人为了避免批评而采取某种措施时就会被说成是在“保护屁股”。这个短语的原意是士兵知道在他前方发生了什么，但对于后面有什么正在逼近就知道得少多了。若要避免遭到突然袭击，就得留意后面。
勇敢的行为总会招致批评。如果议员们总是“保护屁股”，那么，就采取行动与不采取行动所产生的两种后果而言，他们恐怕就会更忧虑前者了。但在政治上无声无息又取得了什么呢？
民主党人患了SARS
Back in the 1950s the Demo-cratic Party was striving to expand the modern welfare state that had been founded during the administra-tion of President Franklin Roosevelt 20 years earlier. Certain Republicans criticized GOP①legislators in Congress for being too willing not just to cooperate with Democrats， but to follow their lead. Critics derided such lawmakers as "me too" Republi-cans because whenever the Democrats announced that they wanted to create a new social pro-gram， these politicians allegedly replied， "Me too！"
According to Stuart Carlson， this situation has now been reversed. As Republicans lead the war effort in Washington and push to reduce taxes despite the impact of a tax cut on the budget deficit or social spending， many Americans wonder what has happened to the Democrats. Why are they not challenging the Republicans more boldly？ Stuart Carlson depicts the Democratic Party as a nervous donkey holding up a sign that says "Me， too！"
Carlson has a diagnosis to offer： the Dems are suffering from "SARS" - only he means not a rampant form of pneumonia but the dreaded "Simpering Acquiescence to Republicans Syndrome". And Dr Carlson kindly posts a list of symptoms in his "health alert". Chi-nese readers will find all except the last self-explanatory. In English， public officials， corporate executives and the like are said to "cover their tails" when they take steps to avoid criticism. The idea is that a soldier is aware of what is happening in front of him， but much less so of what is approaching from the rear. He needs to pay attention to what lies in back of him if he wants to avoid surprise attacks.
Bold action always draws criticism. If legislators are always "covering their tails"， then they're probably more worried about the consequences of acting than about the consequences of doing nothing. And what has doing nothing ever achieved in politics？
健康警告！
SARS（对共和党人赔笑默许综合症）继续困扰国会山
症状如下：
★声带麻痹
★脊椎软化到酸奶似的程度
★在被问及任何有关爱国主义的问题时都会大汗淋漓
★条件反射般地用枕头或其它软物保护屁股
英语 幽默本文地址：http://www.dioenglish.com/writing/humor/47155.html
