们让希望成真，也正是因为你们，无论从哪个角度看，现在的美国比我上任时变得更好、更强。
In ten days, the world will witness a hallmark of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power from one freely-elected president to the next. I committed to President-Elect Trump that my administration would ensure the smoothest possible transition, just as President Bush did for me. Because it's up to all of us to make sure our government can help us meet the many challenges we still face.
十天之内，世界将会见证我们民主的一个标志：（观众：不——）自由选举选出的总统之间，权力交接应当是和平的。我已向即将就职总统的特朗普先生承诺，我的团队将会尽己所能保证平稳交接，就像布什总统之前为我做的一样。因为我们所有人都需要确保政府可以帮助我们应对目前面临的诸多挑战。
We have what we need to do so. After all, we remain the wealthiest, most powerful, and most respected nation on Earth. Our youth and drive, our diversity and openness, our boundless capacity for risk and reinvention mean that the future should be ours.
我们拥有这些，我们拥有一切应对挑战的武器。毕竟，我们仍然是这个世界上最富有、最强大、最受尊敬的国家。我们的青年和发展动力，我们的多样性和开放程度，我们应对风险和进行革新的能力，都在向我们表明未来应该是属于我们的。
But that potential will be realized only if our democracy works. Only if our politics reflects the decency of the our people. Only if all of us, regardless of our party affiliation or particular interest, help restore the sense of common
purpose that we so badly need right now.
但是，只有我们保持民主这些潜力才会发挥出来。只有当我们的政治反映出人民的正直，只有我们所有人，不论党派关系或特殊利益，都有助于推动我们实现共同目的的渴望时，这些潜力才会发挥出来。
That's what I want to focus on tonight -- the state of our democracy. 这就是今晚我想说的重点——我们的民主体制。
Understand, democracy does not require uniformity. Our founders quarreled and compromised, and expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity -- the idea that for all our outward differences, we are all in this together; that we rise or fall as one.
要知道，民主并不强求一致。我们的领袖会争吵，会妥协，但他们知道民主需要一种基本的团结意识，虽然我们存在各种差异，但我们却是一个整体，我们共兴亡。
There have been moments throughout our history that threatened to rupture that solidarity. The beginning of this century has been one of those times. A shrinking world, growing inequality; demographic change and the specter of terrorism -- these forces haven't just tested our security and prosperity, but our democracy as well. And how we meet these challenges to our democracy will determine our ability to educate our kids, and create good jobs, and protect our homeland. In other words, it will determine our future.
历史上，我们国家的团结曾多次受到威胁。在本世纪初，我们的国家就面临了这样的挑战：世界不断变小，不平等持续扩大，人口变化以及恐怖主义蔓延，这些因素不只是对我们国家安全和经济繁荣的考验，也是对我们民主体制的考验。我们如何来应对这
些挑战，将决定我们是否有能力教育好我们的孩子，创造新的就业机会，并保护我们的家园。换言之，怎样应对挑战将决定我们的未来。
Our democracy won't work without a sense that everyone has economic opportunity. Today, the economy is growing again; wages, incomes, home values, and retirement accounts are rising again; poverty is falling again. The wealthy are paying a fairer share of taxes even as the stock market shatters records. The unemployment rate is near a ten-year low. The uninsured rate has never, ever been lower.
首先，我们的民主政体发挥作用的前提是我们承认每个人都在经济发展中享有机会。值得高兴的是今天的美国经济正在增长。薪资水平、房产价值和退休金都在增长。贫困率正在降低。股价实现历史新高，而富裕阶层的交税比例也日趋合理。失业率实现了十年最低。参保比例达到了从未有过的高水平。
Health care costs are rising at the slowest rate in fifty years. And if anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we've made to our health care system -- that covers as many people at less cost -- I will publicly support it.
医疗成本的增长速度实现了半个世纪以来的最低水平。如我之前所说，如果有哪个方案可以实现医疗体系的更大提升，实现以更低成本覆盖更多人群，那么我一定会公开支持这一方案，我当时所说是认真的。
That, after all, is why we serve -- to make people's lives better, not worse. But for all the real progress we've made, we know it's not enough. Our economy doesn't work as well or grow as fast when a few prosper at the
expense of a growing middle class. But stark inequality is also corrosive to our democratic principles. While the top one percent has amassed a bigger share of wealth and income, too many families, in inner cities and rural counties, have been left behind -- the laid-off factory worker; the waitress and health care worker who struggle to pay the bills -- convinced that the game is fixed against them, that their government only serves the interests of the powerful -- a recipe for more cynicism and polarization in our politics.
我当选后，出现了一种说法是美国进入后种族时代（种族歧视已经不存在），这只是一个愿景，并不是现实。因为种族问题在我们的社会中仍然是一种强有力的分裂力量。虽然这一问题得到了某种程度的改善，但我们每一个人都需要做出更多的努力。毕竟，如果每一个经济问题都被看作是勤劳的白人中产阶级和不受欢迎的少数民族之间的矛盾，那所有种族的工人只能是争夺蝇头小利，而富人坐收渔翁之利。
There are no quick fixes to this long-term trend. I agree that our trade should be fair and not just free. But the next wave of economic dislocation won't come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes many good, middle-class jobs obsolete.
但是针对这种长期形成的问题，没有快速解决方案。我同意我们应该在推行自由贸易的同时重视贸易公平。但是其他国家的影响不会是下一次经济危机爆发的原因，持续的自动化发展才会带来这样的后果。自动化将使许多优质岗位上的中产阶级工人被取代。
And so we must forge a new social compact -- to guarantee all our kids the education they need; to give workers the power to unionize for better wages; to
update the social safety net to reflect the way we live now and make more reforms to the tax code so corporations and individuals who reap the most from the new economy don't avoid their obligations to the country that's made their success possible. We can argue about how to best achieve these goals. But we can't be complacent about the goals themselves. For if we don't create opportunity for all people, the disaffection and division that has stalled our progress will only sharpen in years to come.
因此，我们必须达成一份新的社会契约以保证所有孩子能够接受他们所需的教育，以给予工人联合在一起的力量从而争取更高薪资，以完善社会保障从而使其更加适应我们现在的生活状况，以推进税收改革，从而使那些在我们经济体中攫取最多的公司和个人承担起对国家的义务，因为他们正是仰赖国家才得以取得成功。我们可以就如何才能更好地实现这些目标展开讨论。但是我们不能因这些目标本身而感到自满。因为如果我们不能为所有人创造机会的话，不满和分裂会阻碍我们的进步，并且这种阻力会逐年增强。
There's a second threat to our democracy -- one as old as our nation itself. After my election, there was talk of a post-racial America. Such a vision, however well-intended, was never realistic. For race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society. I've lived long enough to know that race relations are better than they were ten, or twenty, or thirty years ago -- you can see it not just in statistics, but in the attitudes of young Americans across the political spectrum.
我们的民主政体还面临第二道威胁，这一威胁几乎和我们的国家一样古老。我当选