政变仍然是政变，同样的道理，玫瑰就是玫瑰就是玫瑰

另一方面，鞋子不是玫瑰，即使你称它为玫瑰，即使南希·佩洛西 (Nancy Pelosi) 伤心、罗恩·克莱恩 (Ron Klain) 不满，也不是。

The events of July 2024 were no more a coup than those of August 1974, when a president who'd been elected with 47,168,710 votes was forced to give up office and go away—not just quit as a candidate in an election campaign, but actually resign the office he'd been elected to.

2024 年 7 月的事件与 1974 年 8 月的事件一样，算不上是一场政变，当时一位以 47,168,710 票当选的总统被迫放弃公职并离开——不仅仅是在竞选活动中辞去候选人身份，而且实际上辞去他当选的职务。

Richard Nixon had abused the powers of his office. But he hadn't been charged by the House or convicted by the Senate. Instead he left because the investigators were closing in and his poll ratings had cratered. In short, circumstances had rendered him nonviable as a national leader. It remained for party elders to pay him a visit and spell out the consequences, chiefly that Republicans in Congress no longer supported his fight to stay in office.

理查德·尼克松滥用职权。但他没有被众议院指控或被参议院定罪。相反，他离开了，因为调查人员正在逼近，而他的民调支持率也大幅下降。简而言之，环境使他无法担任国家领导人。党内元老们仍然需要拜访他并阐明后果，主要是国会中的共和党人不再支持他继续留任的斗争。

For his part, Joe Biden had to quit the race for president because some good evidence (the June 27 debate with Donald Trump) had convinced the public his brain was no longer biologically fit for service. The 25th amendment might've been invoked but wasn't. Donors and elected officials sounded the alarm, and party leaders prevailed upon Biden to face some unwelcome facts. Seeing that he couldn't lead the party and also remain as a candidate, Biden dropped out.

就乔·拜登而言，他不得不退出总统竞选，因为一些有力的证据（6 月 27 日与唐纳德·特朗普的辩论）使公众确信他的大脑在生物学上不再适合服役。第 25 条修正案可能已被援引，但没有被援引。捐助者和民选官员敲响了警钟，政党领导人说服拜登面对一些不受欢迎的事实。看到自己无法领导该党并同时继续担任候选人，拜登退出了。

I think Biden should also have resigned the presidency. At 81 he might have enough coherence to keep running the country as long as he skips the immense second job of running for reelection. But the risk seems a bit much. Still, Biden disagrees and so do the country's poll respondents, so we'll just have to scrape through the next five months and hope.

我认为拜登也应该辞去总统职务。 81 岁的他可能有足够的凝聚力继续管理这个国家，只要他跳过竞选连任这一艰巨的第二项工作。但风险似乎有点大。尽管如此，拜登不同意，该国的民意调查受访者也不同意，所以我们只能勉强度过接下来的五个月并抱有希望。

In the meantime, Biden has managed to trip up the elders who jawboned him into ending his candidacy. Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama wanted some kind of open selection process to choose a new nominee. Biden simply endorsed Kamala Harris and watched her roll to an unbeatable lead. Some coup: they can't get rid of him and he chose the party's nominee.

与此同时，拜登成功地绊倒了那些劝说他终止竞选的长辈。南希·佩洛西和巴拉克·奥巴马希望通过某种公开选拔程序来选择新的提名人。拜登只是支持卡马拉·哈里斯，并看着她取得了无与伦比的领先优势。一些妙招：他们无法摆脱他，而他选择了该党的提名人。

Take the coup blatherers seriously and you have to conclude that politicians can't resign. Alaskans didn't vote for Sarah Palin to serve half a term and then go looking for cash. It was their understanding that she would serve four years. When she bugged out, a decision of the voters was being undone; whether she was happy about her choice is beside the point. But nobody claims she thwarted democracy. They say she was feckless and self-centered, but that's all. When Nixon finally realized he had to go, nobody said the electorate was being couped. But with Biden we get silly talk of anti-democracy even as polls and grassroots donations show that his withdrawal is just fine with the party rank and file.

认真对待那些喋喋不休的政变者，你就会得出这样的结论：政客们不能辞职。阿拉斯加人并没有投票支持莎拉佩林任职半个任期，然后去寻找现金。他们认为她将服刑四年。当她窃听时，选民的一项决定就被撤销了。她是否对自己的选择感到高兴并不重要。但没有人声称她阻碍了民主。他们说她不负责任、以自我为中心，但仅此而已。当尼克松最终意识到他必须下台时，没有人说选民被政变了。但对于拜登，我们却听到了有关反民主的愚蠢言论，尽管民意调查和草根捐款显示，党内普通民众对他的退出表示满意。

Three and a half years ago the nation saw a real attempt at a coup, an attempt by violence to disrupt a constitutionally mandated process so that the loser of an election could hold on to office. It was a shambolic attempt but genuine, not some innocent substitute hyped to pass for the real thing. I think the same reason lies behind January 6 and today's hype about July 2024. The country has become a huge blather factory. The love of talk, not talking to communicate but talking to get attention, is swamping our ability to tell one thing from another. A TV personality can become president and talk a mob into thinking he was cheated when all he did was lose reelection. And pundits talking about one of the most important topics there is—was that a coup or not a coup?—can look at a hot take and think it's a point.

三年半前，这个国家发生了一场真正的政变企图，试图通过暴力破坏宪法规定的程序，以便选举的失败者能够继续执政。这是一次混乱的尝试，但却是真实的，而不是一些被大肆宣传冒充真实事物的无辜替代品。我认为 1 月 6 日和今天关于 2024 年 7 月的炒作背后也有同样的原因。这个国家已经成为一个巨大的废话工厂。对说话的热爱，不是为了交流而说话，而是为了引起注意而说话，正在淹没我们区分一件事和另一件事的能力。电视名人可以成为总统，并说服暴民认为他被欺骗了，而他所做的只是失去了连任。专家们在谈论最重要的话题之一——这是一场政变还是不是一场政变？——可以看到一个热门观点并认为这是一个观点。