布隆伯格不参加2020年总统竞选的声明

2019年3月5日，星期二

陌上美国
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今天美国东部时间下午4点，迈克尔·布隆伯格(Michael Bloomberg)通过他自己创办的媒体，彭博新闻，发布了《我们最高权利的职位，我最深的义务》的评论文章。这意味着，他正式宣布不参加2020年的美国总统的竞选。

我不竞选总统，但我正在推出一项新活动：超越多碳(Beyond Carbon)

全文翻译：

我从来不掩饰自己的观点，唐纳德·特朗普对我们国家是个巨大的威胁。在2016年民主党全国代表大会上，我说：“我们纽约人看到一个骗子的时候，能立刻识破他。”去年秋天的中期选举，我花了超过1亿美元支持民主党。国会中的共和党人失败了——仍然在继续失败——没有履行宪法赋予的义务，没有就有效地监督总统承担责任。相反，他们放纵着最糟糕的冲动，拒绝与民主党人就最紧迫的问题进行合作。

至关重要的是，将有一个民主党人，能有能力击败唐纳德·特朗普，并将我们的国家重新团结在一起。我们不能允许初选过程将民主党推到极端，这会削弱我们在大选中的机会，并转变成”再一个四年”。

很多人都催促我参选。有些人告诉我，为了赢得民主党提名，我需要改变我的观点以配合民意调查。但我的整个政治生涯中一直收到类似建议。

我竞选过三次，并且每次都赢了，这在很大程度上是因为我从来不凭空决定我应该相信什么。我不是那种人，也不认为选民想要那样的领导者。他们希望有人与他们保持一致，即使他们不同意，（这个人）也有能力提供实际、明智和雄心勃勃的想法——以及解决问题并带来结果。

我来自商界，在私营部门和政府都做过高级职位。我一生都热衷于找到解决棘手问题的方法。我的技能是建立和领导团队，制定创新计划，然后去共同努力实施。我认为这正是我们国家的总统所需要有的能力，特别是在经历了四年的混乱、破坏和欺骗之后。

我知道如何运行操作能赢的竞选，每当我阅读新闻时，我对白宫椭圆形办公室的无能感到更加沮丧。我知道我们作为一个国家可以做得更好。而且我相信我能在普选中击败唐纳德·特朗普。但我很清楚在民主党党内初选这样一个拥挤的情况下，赢得民主党提名的难度。

还有另一个重大的因素影响了我的决定：我们国家面临的最大的问题，可能会在未来两年内恶化。由于白宫领导人拒绝将各方团结一起，国会几乎不可能解决我们面临的主要挑战。这些包括，气候变化，枪支暴力，阿片类药物危机（点击查看前文🔗），失败的公立学校和大学的学生贷款负债大问题。所有都可能变得更加严重，而总统的许多执政行为，只会使事情变得更加复杂。

我非常爱我们的国家，因为我责无旁贷。而在国家问题变得更糟的时刻，我仍然希望一切能好转。但我也认为，直到2021年，甚至更长时间，我们唯一真正的进步希望不在华盛顿。与大多数正在竞选或考虑竞选的人不同，我很幸运能够投入所需的资源来将人们聚集在一起并发挥重要作用。

离开公职后，我创建并支持了一些行动，这类举措正在吸引不同城市、州、企业和非营利组织的领导者和国民们自发采取行动。像我一样，大多数美国人希望改善他们身边的社区并取得成绩。我们一起证明，即使没有华盛顿的帮助，也有可能。

我知道在接下来的两年里我们可以做得更多，但前提是我们要专注于做事并扩大效果。事实是：参加总统竞选将限制我这做这些事情的能力。

因此，当我考虑是否竞选总统时，我的选择已经变得清晰。我是否应该在接下来的两年里，带着可能赢不了民主党初选的疑问，花时间竞选谈论我的政见和过去取得的成绩？还是，应该在接下来的两年里加倍努力于我已经领导和资助的事情，这些已知的马上就可以为国家带来真正有益结果的方向？

我逐渐意识到，我的兴趣不是说而是行动。我得出的结论是，就目前而言，我能帮助我们国家的最佳方式是，卷起袖子继续完成工作。

这有我的一种做事方式。2011年，在国会贸易新规则立法失败后，我与塞拉俱乐部合作开展了一项名为"超越煤炭(Beyond Coal)"的活动。通过组织和动员受煤电厂污染影响的社区，我们帮助关闭了全国一半以上的此类型工厂——530个中的285个——用更清洁、更便宜的能源取而代之。这是美国能够将排碳量减少11％的最大原因——并将煤电厂的死亡人数从13,000减少到了3,000。

现在，我将采取下一个重大步骤。首先，我将扩大对“超越煤炭”活动的支持，以便我们能够在未来11年内废弃每一座燃煤电厂。这不是一个白日梦。我们能做到。第二，我将推出一个新的，更加雄心勃勃的活动——”超越多碳(Beyond Carbon)“：一个草根运动，以谋求尽快将美国从石油和天然气能源，转移到100％的清洁能源经济。

”超越多碳”的核心是坚信，正如科学已经明确指出的那样，每年都很紧迫。“绿色新政”——十多年前由专栏作家汤姆·弗里德曼首先提出——在接下来的两年里基本没有机会通过参议院。但自然母亲不会根据我们的政治步伐而等待，我们也不能（事情紧迫留给我们的时间不多了）。

这同样适用于枪支暴力。近25年来，国会尚未通过一项重大的枪支安全法案。上周，民主党主导的众议院投票通过了一项加强背景调查制度的法案，但几乎可以肯定，共和党主导的参议院会阻止它通过。尽管如此，由于我们花了数年时间组织和动员的强大的基层力量，20个州通过了更强有力的背景调查法案，或通过了其他法律来帮助将枪支从危险的人手中夺走。但是20个州还不够，鉴于我们国家面临的风险，我们现在不能停止（控枪运动）。

华盛顿在继续忽视一些成熟有效的解决方案，而枪支暴力和气候变化也并不是我们必须取得进展的时间表上的唯一紧迫的挑战。

我们知道如何改善公立学校教育并大大减少种族之间的差距。我们在纽约市做到了这一点，提高标准、增加问责制以及为我们的孩子提供他们在当今知识和技术经济中茁壮成长所需的教育。

我们知道如何增加低收入学生的入学机会。我的基金会就是这样做，通过与大学合作增加经济援助和招聘，并为高中学生提供更多的申请支持。

我们知道如何减少阿片类药物成瘾；提高医疗保健和医疗服务的质量；并减少街道上无家可归的人的数量。在纽约市，我们将人均寿命提高了三年，我正在努力帮助其他城市取得类似进展。

我们知道如何加强各地的社区，通过投资选拔地方性的领袖以及扶持他们正在做的创新性工作，至下而上地解决我们国家的挑战。这是我基金会工作的核心焦点，也是我们面临许多最严峻挑战的答案所在。

我们知道，为了保护我们的民主，我们需要组织起来保护每个公民的投票权。

在这些问题和其他问题上，华盛顿不太可能在未来两年采取有效行动。进步完全取决于我们这些局外人。

在接下来的几个星期和几个月里，我将从具体的行动和有效的结果出发，深入探讨如何扭转我们国家的发展。我将继续支持那些有我们需要的领导力和远见的候选人——气候变化，枪支暴力，教育，健康，投票权和其他关键问题——并继续坚持下去，为他们实现竞选承诺提供大力支持。

我希望那些敦促我参加总统竞选并坚持他们所珍视的价值观和原则的人，会理解我的决定。这是由一个根本性原则指导的：我怎样才能最好地为国家服务？

成为总统是无尚的荣誉，但我作为公民的最高义务是，尽我所能帮助这个国家。

I’ve never made any secret of my belief that Donald Trump is a threat to our country. At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, I said: “New Yorkers know a con when we see one.” Last fall I spent more than $100 million supporting Democrats in the midterm elections. Republicans in Congress had failed — and are still failing — to fulfill their constitutional duty to hold the president accountable. Instead, they indulge his worst impulses and refuse to work with Democrats on the most urgent issues.

It’s essential that we nominate a Democrat who will be in the strongest position to defeat Donald Trump and bring our country back together. We cannot allow the primary process to drag the party to an extreme that would diminish our chances in the general election and translate into “Four More Years.“

Many people have urged me to run. Some have told me that to win the Democratic nomination, I would need to change my views to match the polls. But I’ve been hearing that my whole political career.

I’ve run for office three times and won each time, in no small part because I’ve never stuck my finger in the wind to decide what I should believe. It’s not who I am, nor do I think it’s what voters want in a leader. They want someone who levels with them, even when they disagree, and who is capable of offering practical, sensible, and ambitious ideas — and of solving problems and delivering results.

I come out of the business world. I’ve had executive jobs in both the private sector and government. Finding solutions to tough problems is my life’s passion. My skills are in building and leading teams that draw up innovative plans and then work together to implement them. I think this is exactly what our country needs in a president, especially after what will be four years of chaos, disruption, and deceit.

I know what it takes to run a winning campaign, and every day when I read the news, I grow more frustrated by the incompetence in the Oval Office. I know we can do better as a country. And I believe I would defeat Donald Trump in a general election. But I am clear-eyed about the difficulty of winning the Democratic nomination in such a crowded field.

There is another factor that has weighed heavily on my mind: the likelihood that our biggest national problems will worsen over the next two years. With a leader in the White House who refuses to bring the parties together, it will be nearly impossible for Congress to address the major challenges we face, including climate change, gun violence, the opioid crisis, failing public schools, and college affordability. All are likely to grow more severe, and many of the president’s executive actions will only compound matters.

I love our country too much to sit back and hope for the best as national problems get worse. But I also recognize that until 2021, and possibly longer, our only real hope for progress lies outside of Washington. And unlike most who are running or thinking of it, I’m fortunate enough to be in a position to devote the resources needed to bring people together and make a big difference.

Since leaving public office, I’ve created and supported initiatives that are rallying citizens and leaders of cities, states, businesses, and nonprofit organizations to take action on their own. Like me, most Americans want to improve their communities and get things done. Together, we’ve shown that’s possible even without help from Washington.

I know there’s much more we can accomplish over the next two years, but only if we stay focused on the work and expand upon it. And the fact is: A national presidential campaign would limit my ability to do that.

So as I’ve thought about a possible presidential campaign, the choice before me has become clear. Should I devote the next two years to talking about my ideas and record, knowing that I might never win the Democratic nomination? Or should I spend the next two years doubling down on the work that I am already leading and funding, and that I know can produce real and beneficial results for the country, right now?

I’ve come to realize that I’m less interested in talking than doing. And I have concluded that, for now, the best way for me to help our country is by rolling up my sleeves and continuing to get work done.

Here’s one way I’ll do that. In 2011, following the failure of cap and trade legislation in Congress, I teamed up with the Sierra Club on a campaign called Beyond Coal. By organizing and mobilizing communities affected by the harmful pollution of coal-fired power plants, we have helped close more than half the nation’s plants — 285 out of 530 — and replaced them with cleaner and cheaper energy. That was the single biggest reason the U.S. has been able to reduce its carbon footprint by 11 percent — and cut deaths from coal power plants from 13,000 to 3,000.

Now, I will take the next big steps. First, I will expand my support for the Beyond Coal campaign so that we can retire every single coal-fired power plant over the next 11 years. That’s not a pipe dream. We can do it. And second, I will launch a new, even more ambitious phase of the campaign — Beyond Carbon: a grassroots effort to begin moving America as quickly as possible away from oil and gas and toward a 100 percent clean energy economy.

At the heart of Beyond Carbon is the conviction that, as the science has made clear, every year matters. The idea of a Green New Deal — first suggested by the columnist Tom Friedman more than a decade ago — stands no chance of passage in the Senate over the next two years. But Mother Nature does not wait on our political calendar, and neither can we.

The same applies to gun violence. Congress has not passed a major gun safety bill in nearly 25 years. Last week the Democratic House voted to approve a bill strengthening the background check system, but the Republican Senate is virtually guaranteed to block it. Nevertheless, thanks to strong grassroots efforts that we have spent years organizing and mobilizing, 20 states have passed stronger background check bills or adopted other laws that help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. But 20 states is not enough, and we can’t stop now given the risks to our country.

Gun violence and climate change are not the only urgent challenges where we must make progress even as Washington continues to ignore proven solutions.

We know how to improve public schools and dramatically reduce the racial achievement gap. We did it in New York City, by raising standards, increasing accountability, and giving our children the education they need to thrive in today’s knowledge- and technology-based economy.

We know how to increase access to college for low-income students. My foundation is doing just that, by working with colleges to increase financial aid and recruitment, and giving high school students more support with the application process.

We know how to reduce opioid addiction; improve the quality of health care and access to it; and reduce homelessness on our streets. We extended life expectancy by three years in New York City, and I’m working to help other cities make similar progress.

We know how to strengthen local communities, by investing in civic leaders and the innovative work they are doing to tackle our nation’s challenges from the ground up. This is a central focus of my foundation’s work, and it is where answers to many of our toughest challenges lie.

And we know that to protect our democracy, we need to organize to protect every citizen’s right to vote.

On these and other issues, Washington is unlikely to take effective action over the next two years. Progress depends entirely on the rest of us.

In the weeks and months ahead, I will dive even deeper into the work of turning around our country, through concrete actions and results. And I will continue supporting candidates who can provide the leadership we need — on climate change, gun violence, education, health, voting rights, and other critical issues — and continue holding their feet to the fire to deliver what they promise.

I hope those who have urged me to run, and to stand up for the values and principles that they hold dear, will understand that my decision was guided by one question: How can I best serve the country?

While there would be no higher honor than serving as president, my highest obligation as a citizen is to help the country the best way I can, right now.

参考：

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-03-05/our-highest-office-my-deepest-obligation