前纽约市市长：我知道怎么打败特朗普，但我不打算竞选总统

我一直公开表示，唐纳德·特朗普对美国来说是个威胁。2016年民主党全国大会上我就说过：“纽约人一眼就能看穿骗局。”去年秋天中期选举时，我出资1亿多美元支持民主党。在国会里，共和党人很失败，而且一错再错，未能履行宪法赋予总统的责任。而且共和党一直纵容特朗普胡作非为，在最紧急的问题上拒绝与民主党合作。

当务之急是提名一位最有机会击败特朗普的民主党人，把美国重新团结起来。初选过程不可内耗过大，否则将削弱赢得大选的机会，最后变成“又得熬四年”。

许多人劝我竞选。有人告诉我，要想获得民主党内提名，要改变观点迎合民意测验。但我整个政治生涯中都有人这么说。

我竞选过三次，每次都获得了胜利，很大程度上因为我从来没根据舆论风向决定政治观点。我性格如此，也认为选民也不会选喜欢跟风的领袖。人们希望领袖能说实话，即便意见不一致，也能提出实际、明智且雄心勃勃的想法，真正解决问题见成效。

我来自商界，在私营部门和政府部门都工作过。解决难题是我平生最热爱的事。我的技能是建立和领导团队，制定创新计划，然后共同实施。我认为这正是身为国家总统应该做的事，尤其是经历了四年的混乱颠倒和欺骗之后。

我知道竞选获胜需要什么，每天读新闻时我都对总统办公室的无能越来越沮丧。我很清楚我们国家可以做得更好，也相信可以在大选中击败特朗普。但我清楚地认识到，在面临诸多竞争的情况下，想获得民主党提名非常困难。

我在思想上还有另一个沉重负担，即未来两年内美国面临最大的问题可能恶化。由于白宫领导人拒绝联合两党力量，国会几乎不可能解决面临的主要挑战，包括气候变化、枪支暴力、阿片类药物滥用危机、公立学校倒闭和大学学费高昂等。种种问题都可能逐步恶化，总统的许多行为只会让事情更复杂。

我深爱自己的国家，不能袖手旁观，在国家问题恶化时不能只是希望一切变好。但我也意识到，到2021年甚至更长时间里，推动进步真正的希望都不能靠联邦政府。与大多数已经参与或考虑竞选的人们不同，我的幸运之处在于有能力投入资源将人们聚集在一起，共同推动巨大的改变。

离开公职以来，我已经创建并支持了一些倡议，努力号召公民和城市、州、企业和非营利组织领导人自行采取行动。像我一样，大多数的美国人希望改善社区，真正做一些事情。我们一起证明，即使没有联邦政府帮助，同样可能完成。

接下来的两年里，我们可以完成更多的工作，但前提是继续努力并不断扩展。事实是：参与全国性的大选活动反而会限制我的能力。

因此，我考虑参与总统竞选时，面前的选择已经很清晰。如果明知道可能不会获得民主党提名，接下来两年里应不应该大力宣讲我的想法，介绍执政经历？还是应该在接下来两年加倍投入到已经领导和资助的工作上，而且很明显这些工作现在就能为国家带来真正有益的结果？

我逐渐意识到，比起夸夸其谈我更喜欢实际做事。结论是，目前帮助国家最好的办法就是卷起袖子继续工作。

介绍下我做的工作。2011年，在国会的总量控制与交易立法失败后，我与塞拉俱乐部合作开展了一项名为“超越煤炭”的运动。通过组织动员受燃煤电厂污染影响的社区，帮助关闭了全国一半以上的电厂（530个电厂中的285个），取而代之的是更洁净也更便宜的能源。这是美国将碳足迹减少11%的最大原因之一，而且将燃煤发电厂导致的死亡人数从13000人减少到3000人。

现在是重要的下一步。首先，我将增加对“超越煤炭”运动的支持，争取在未来11年实现所有燃煤发电厂关闭。这不是白日梦。我们可以做到。第二，我将把运动推向全新也更雄心勃勃的阶段，即超越碳排放。通过民间努力推动美国尽快摆脱石油和天然气，迈向100%的清洁能源经济。

超越碳的核心是认为进展中每一年都很重要，科学界也已经明确指出。十年前由专栏作家汤姆·弗里德曼首次提出绿色新政，未来两年参议院不可能通过。但是大自然不会等待人类的政治日程，人类也同样等不起。

枪支暴力方面也差不多。近25年来，国会还没通过重要的枪支安全法案。上周，民主党众议院投票通过了加强背景审查的法案，但共和党参议院肯定会阻止该法案通过。由于多年来组织动员的基层努力，20个州通过了更强力的背景调查法案或其他法律，防止枪支落入危险人群手中。但20个州远远不够，考虑到面临的风险，现在不能停止。

枪支暴力和气候变化还只是诸多紧迫挑战的一部分，即便联盟政府继续无视已经过证明的解决方案，我们仍然要努力获得进展。

我们知道如何改善公立学校，大力减少种族成就的差距。纽约市的做法是，提高标准、增加问责制、给孩子提供在当今以知识和技术为基础的经济中成长所需的教育。

我们知道如何增加低收入学生上大学的机会。这也是基金会努力的目标，现在主要与学院合作，给予经济援助和招聘机会，也为高中生申请提供协助。

我们知道如何应付阿片类药物成瘾现象，提升医疗质量和就医机会，减少无家可归者数量。纽约市人均预期寿命延长了三年，我正在努力帮助其他城市达到类似目标。

我们培养公民领袖，扶持他们从事的创新工作，从底层做起解决国家面临的挑战。这是基金会工作的重点，也是解决当前最严峻挑战的答案所在。

我们知道，为了保护民主，就要组织起来保护每位公民的投票权。

在很多问题上，未来两年内联邦政府不太可能采取有效行动。进步完全取决于我们。

在未来几周和几个月里，我将通过具体的行动和成果，更深入地研究如何扭转国家的局面。我将继续支持能在气候变化、枪支暴力、教育、卫生、投票权和其他关键问题上发挥领导作用的候选人，并继续为实现承诺而努力。

希望敦促我竞选并帮他们呼吁价值观和原则人们能理解，左右我决定的其实是一个问题：我怎样才能更好地为国家服务？

虽然没有比担任总统更高的荣誉，但作为美国公民，现在我最大的义务是尽我所能帮助国家。

（财富中文网）

前纽约市市长迈克尔·布隆伯格是彭博新闻社的母公司彭博有限公司的创始人和大股东。他也是联合国秘书长气候行动特使。

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

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.

Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News. He is the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for climate action.