米中間選挙―世界への責任を忘れずに

2010/11/05
--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 4
EDITORIAL: U.S. midterm elections
米中間選挙―世界への責任を忘れずに

U.S. President Barack Obama's electrifying victory two years ago, when Americans enthusiastically welcomed a liberal president, now seems like an event in the distant past.
　リベラルな大統領誕生に米国が熱狂した２年前が、遠い過去に思える。

The American voting public delivered a harsh verdict on Obama in the midterm elections.
オバマ大統領は米議会の中間選挙で、国民の厳しい審判を受けた。

The Democratic Party led by Obama lost its majority in the House of Representatives, handing over the legislative leadership to the opposition Republican Party. Democrats managed to maintain control of the Senate, but allowed Republicans to expand their strength sharply.
　大統領の率いる民主党が下院で過半数を割り、野党共和党に主導権を奪われた。上院はかろうじて多数を保ったものの、大幅に議席を減らした。

The results of the midterm elections don't necessarily foreshadow the outcome of the presidential race in two years. But it is clear that Obama needs to reinvent his strategy for re-election.
中間選挙は、そのまま２年後の大統領選挙を占うものではない。だが、オバマ氏は再選に向け、戦略の全般的な練り直しを迫られることになった。

In pre-election polls, about 60 percent of the respondents cited the economy and unemployment as their issue of primary concern.
　選挙前の世論調査で、約６割が経済・失業問題を最大の関心事と答えた。

The United States avoided the worst-case scenario in the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. But the nation's economic recovery has been on a shaky footing despite huge government spending to stimulate growth. The country's unemployment rate has been staying above 9 percent.
大恐慌以来の経済危機は最悪の事態を回避したが、巨額の財政出動にもかかわらず景気回復が軌道に乗らない。失業率は９％台だ。

Deep discontent about the economic situation caused a big shift away from the Democratic Party.
渦巻く国民の不満が民主党離れを増幅した。

The health-care reform Obama has pushed through by staging a high-stakes political campaign became a main target of campaign attacks before its benefits began to be felt.
Republican candidates criticized Obama's health-care legislation as a symbol of big government.
　大統領が政権の命運をかけて実現した医療保険改革も、その恩恵が十分感じられる前に、「大きな政府」のシンボルとして攻撃の的となった。

A major contributor to the Republican resurgence was the Tea Party, a new grass-roots, conservative political movement that began in 2009.
　共和党を押し上げたのは草の根保守のティーパーティー（茶会）である。

The civic movement derives its name and spirit from the Boston Tea Party, an iconic American political incident during the period of the American Revolution. On Dec. 16, 1773, a group of colonists opposed to the Tea Act passed by the British Parliament sneaked into British East India Company ships and destroyed shiploads of taxed tea by throwing them into Boston Harbor.
独立革命期の米国で、英議会が制定した茶税法に反対して、東インド会社の船に忍び込み、積み荷を海中に投じたボストン茶会事件にちなんで始まった市民運動だ。

The Tea Party movement succeeded in uniting conservative groups of various stripes through a focused campaign against big government spending, generating a wave of anti-Obama anger.
様々な主張をもつ保守勢力を、政府支出への反対という一点に絞って団結させ、「反オバマ」のうねりを引き起こした。

The Obama White House now faces tough political dickering over key legislative initiatives with a divided Congress.
　ホワイトハウスは今後、民主、共和でねじれた議会を相手に、政治的駆け引きを強いられる。

A swollen federal deficit is restraining the government's ability to take additional measures to stoke economic growth, such as tax cuts.
すでに財政赤字が膨らんでおり、減税などの景気刺激策にも限りがある。

The health-care reform could be rolled back, depending on how Republicans deal with the issue.
医療保険改革も共和党次第で後戻りしかねない。

A political gridlock at home would have serious repercussions on U.S. diplomacy.
　内政に手詰まると、外交にも影響が及ぶだろう。

That would be unfortunate because there is a long list of challenges confronting the international community that could not be dealt with effectively without leadership from the United States.
米国の指導力なしに前に進めない課題が国際社会にたくさんある。

Such international challenges include how to end the war in Afghanistan, how to break the impasse in negotiations over a post-Kyoto Protocol climate treaty to stop global warming and how to promote international cooperation to deal with the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran and push the world toward a nuclear-free future.
アフガニスタン戦争にどう終止符を打つか。「京都議定書」以後の地球温暖化防止交渉をどう打開するか。北朝鮮やイランの核問題でどのように国際協調を強め、「核のない世界」へと歩を進めるか。

Washington also needs to figure out a way to rebuild its relations with Japan, which have been strained by the Futenma air base issue, under a new diplomatic strategy for East Asia, where China is rising as a leading power.
中国が台頭する東アジアで、基地問題でつまずいている日本との関係をどう組み立て直すか。

U.S. Congress, with enhanced Republican ranks as a result of the Tea Party boom, holds the key for efforts to tackle tough challenges on both the domestic and diplomatic fronts.
　内政、外交ともに、茶会ブームに乗って共和党が議席を増やした議会の動向が、鍵を握る。

There are some extreme arguments within the Tea Party, such as a call for complete liberalization of health care without any government intervention. The movement disagrees with the Republican mainstream on many important issues.
茶会には医療保険への政府介入を撤廃する「完全自由化」などの極論もあり、共和党本流とは異なる点も多い。

It is also doubtful whether lawmakers supported by the Tea Party will pay serious attention to international issues.
また、茶会の後押しを受けた議員たちが、どれだけ国際問題に目を向けるか疑問である。

The United States still remains the biggest pole in an increasingly multipolar world and must fulfill the responsibility that status entails.
　世界は多極化しているが、今も米国が一番大きな極であり、米国にはそれにふさわしい責任がある。

Neither Congress nor the president should adopt an even more inward-looking attitude.
　議会も大統領も、これ以上の内向き志向に陥ってはならない。

We hope U.S. political leaders will debate various important policy issues with the kind of international sensibility they are expected to have in this age of globalization and demonstrate their expected problem-solving abilities.
グローバル化時代にふさわしい国際感覚を持って議論を重ね、米国の持つ問題解決能力を十分に発揮する政治を望みたい。