Why the 2018 midterm elections feel so epic
Les enjeux des élections américaines de mi-mandat.
Le 6 novembre prochain se tiendront les élections de mi-mandat aux États-Unis. Comme tous les quatre ans, les citoyens américains prendront ainsi le chemin des urnes pour élire leurs représentants aux deux chambres du Congrès, la Chambre des représentants et le Sénat, toutes deux contrôlées par les Républicains. Alors que Donald Trump achève sa deuxième année de mandat, ces élections revêtent une importance toute particulière...
Washington — Ever since President Trump's election, Hannah Laurison has had an eye on Nov. 6, 2018. So stunned the morning of Trump's victory that she couldn't find the words to tell her daughters, the Philadelphian found her voice soon after. After commiserating and crying with friends, Laurison helped organize weekly protests outside Republican Sen. Pat Toomey's offices in Pennsylvania, and now leads a coalition of grassroots liberal groups working across the state.
2. She is part of a wave of activism sparked by Trump, as the president and the backlash
1. to have one's eye on sth avoir qqch en ligne de mire / stunned abasourdi, bouleversé / to commiserate s'apitoyer / protest manifestation / Sen. = Senator / grassroots ici, locaux. 2. wave vague, mouvement / to spark déclencher / against him have become the defining forces in American politics. In less than [a month] those competing elements face their most significant test in a midterm election freighted with epic implications. “My world is people who are on fire about politics,” Laurison said.
3. Trump and his supporters, meanwhile, warn that a roaring economy — and his very presidency — is under threat in what amounts to the first national measure of his
backlash ici, réactions négatives / defining déterminant, essentiel / competing ici, qui s'opposent / to face se trouver confronté à / freighted with chargé de / to be on fire about (fam.) être obsédé par. 3. to warn mettre en garde / roaring ici, prospère, qui tourne à plein régime / under threat menacé / to amount to représenter / measure ici, test, baromètre (de confiance) / tenure. “There's a decision here whether we want to continue the prosperity and all the good things with the economy,” said Jim Worthington, a Bucks County businessman who founded a grassroots group to support Trump.
A FOOTHOLD IN CONGRESS
4. Every national election carries significant stakes, but this campaign is charged in a way like few in recent memory, crackling with the furious energy of 2016 that in many ways has only grown more intense during Trump's presidency. Most directly at stake is Democrats' chance to gain a foothold in Congress,
tenure ici, mandat / county comté (aux É.-U., collectivité locale la plus importante à l’intérieur d’un État). 4. foothold ici, ancrage / stake enjeu / to crackle crépiter /
and the power to slow Trump's agenda and probe his administration, set against Republicans' hopes to enact conservative policies for at least two more years.
5. The symbolic stakes run even deeper. Former President Barack Obama has taken to the campaign trail. In calling for rejection of Trump's politics “of fear and resentment,” Obama joined a chorus of Democrats, and some Republicans, warning of fundamental threats from Trump's serial dishonesty, racially charged rhetoric, attacks on the news media, and calls for law enforcement officials to investigate his enemies. “The midterms are just such an important point to test whether all of this resistance energy and political fever can be translated,” Laurison said.
TRUMP’S POLITICAL STYLE
6. A Democratic wave might offer the political reckoning that many expected in 2016, and signal that even though Trump's incendiary agenda programme (politique) / to probe ici, enquêter sur, interroger / administration gouvernement / to enact promulguer. 5. to take, took, taken to the campaign trail se lancer dans la campagne / resentment ressentiment, rancoeur / a chorus of de nombreux / serial ici, invétéré / dishonesty malhonnêteté / racially charged à forte connotation raciste / rhetoric discours / law enforcement officials forces de l'ordre / to be translated ici, se traduire par des résultats concrets. 6. reckoning règlement de comptes / style worked then, it might still carry a political price. If Trump and the GOP again beat expectations, though, and hold the House, it could validate the president's unconventional approach and again show that his appeal runs far deeper than public surveys
GOP = Grand Old Party, parti républicain / expectations attentes / to hold, held, held ici, contrôler / House = House of Representatives, Chambre des représentants / appeal ici, popularité / suggest. It would further decimate the old political rules.
7. The stakes show in public surveys: 65 percent of registered voters told a Washington Post/ABC poll in August that it's more important to vote now than in past midterms. Among Democratic-leaning voters the figure was 75 percent. For those who lean Republican, it was 57 percent.
UNCERTAINTY
8. The odds, and history, favor Democrats. The party in the White House has lost House seats in all but three midterms since the Civil War, and Trump's approval ratings are historically low. But Trump defied predictions and polls in 2016 with a victory that fit into a pattern of seismic upsets around the
survey sondage. 7. registered voter électeur inscrit / poll sondage / to lean, leaned or leant pencher pour (ici, politiquement). 8. odds chances, probabilités / Civil War guerre de Sécession (1861-1865) / approval rating cote de popularité / to fit into ici, s'inscrire dans / pattern phénomène, séquence / upset bouleversement, secousse /