民主黨總統競選人喬·拜登贏得了2020年美國總統大選。微軟總裁布拉德·史密斯在微軟官方博客上對拜登表示祝賀。

Building new bridges: Our thoughts on the US election

架設新橋樑：我們關於美國大選的想法

In 2016, as the United States emerged from a close and contentious national election, we published a blog on the need to find new ways for the country to move forward together. As we reflected that year on the election of Donald Trump, we started with a straightforward proposition, saying:

2016年，隨著一場激烈而有爭議的全國大選水落石出，我們發表了一篇博客，內容是需要為國家共同前進尋找新途徑。當我們在那一年對唐納德·特朗普當選做回應時，我們提出一個直截了當的命題：

“Every president-elect deserves our congratulations, best wishes and support for the country as a whole. The peaceful transition of power has been an enduring and vital part of our democracy for over two centuries, and it remains so today.”

“每一位當選總統都值得我國作為一個整體來祝賀，施以最良好的祝愿和支持。兩個多世紀以來，權力的和平過渡一直是我們民主的一個持久和至關重要的部分，今天仍然如此。”

Four years later, these words are no less important. As we did in 2016, we offer today our congratulations to the new President- and Vice-President-Elect: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

四年後，這些話同樣重要。正如我們在2016年所做的，我們今天向新的總統和副總統當選人：喬·拜登和卡馬拉·哈里斯表示祝賀。

Election Day this year turned into a very long and tense election week, with many Americans glued to their screens anxiously awaiting the outcome. It has been commonplace to hear pundits speculate that we have seldom seemed such a divided country. If true, this also makes a different proposition even more self-evident. If we are to move forward as a nation, we must build new bridges to close the gaps that divide us.

今年的選舉日變成了一個漫長而緊張的選舉週，許多美國人焦急地盯著屏幕等待選舉結果。我們已經習慣聽到專家推測，我們很少見到國家變得如此分裂。如果此言不虛，這也使得另一個命題更加不言自明：如果我們還想作為一個國家向前邁進，我們必須建造新的橋樑，以彌合使我們分裂的差異。

At Microsoft, we believe that Americans share more common ground than many pundits acknowledge, particularly when it comes to technology issues. On many of these matters, there is an OPPO rtunity to separate policies from politics so we can make a real difference in people’s lives . Consider the following:

在微軟，我們相信美國人的共同點比許多專家承認的要多，尤其是在技術問題方面。在許多此類問題上，我們有機會將政策與政治分開，這樣我們才能真正改變人們的生活。請考慮以下事項：

A clear lesson from Covid-19 is that access to technology has become indispensable in an increasingly digital world. This starts with digital devices, but quickly extends to high-speed internet access. Broadband has become the electricity of the 21st century, vital for everything from patients needing telehealth consultations to children who are attending school from home. Today, too many rural families find there is no broadband service available, while too many underprivileged urban families find no broadband service that is affordable. A nation that would not tolerate millions of Americans living without electricity should no longer accept millions of families without broadband.

新冠疫情的一個明確教訓是，在日益數字化的世界中，我們要保證人人都享用技術成果。首先要給低收入群體電腦、手機等數字設備，但接下來就是給他們提供高速互聯網接入。寬帶已經成為21世紀的電力，從需要遠程醫療諮詢的患者到在家上學的兒童，寬帶對這一切至關重要。今天，我們發現太多的農村家庭沒有寬帶服務，而太多的貧困城市家庭發現負擔不起寬帶服務。美國作為一個不能容忍數百萬人缺電的國家，不應該再接受數百萬沒有寬帶的家庭。

Technology-fueled automation increasingly impacts all of our jobs. Digital tools, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to make almost all of us in every job category more successful – but only if we have easier access to the new digital skills that are increasingly indispensable to the jobs of the future. This has become vital for first-line as well as knowledge workers, creating benefits for those in vital positions that range from health care to manufacturing to the nation’s retailers. Yet we enter the 2020s following two decades of declining and then stagnating employer investments in workforce training, and post-secondary education that has left too many students confronting debt without a degree. We need to make digital skills available to everyone.

以技術推動的自動化日益影響我們所有的工作。數字工具、數據分析和人工智能有可能使各行各業的幾乎所有人都更加成功，但前提是我們更容易獲得新的數字技能，這些技能對於未來的工作越來越不可或缺。這對於一線和知識工作者來說都變得至關重要，為那些處於前線（從醫療保健。到製造業，到零售）的人創造了福利。然而，20年來雇主對勞動力培訓，以及中學後教育的投資下降並停滯不前，2020年代有太多學生沒有大學學位，卻依然負債累累。我們需要向所有人提供數字技能。

Across the political spectrum, Americans share not just a commitment to, but a reverence for, democracy. Yet the health of democracy today relies not just on individual acts of voting. It requires constant vigilance and an effective collective defense against cyber-based attacks on candidates and voting systems, and disinformation campaigns against the public itself. At Microsoft, this led us this election cycle to work across the political aisle to protect Republican and Democratic candidates alike. We conclude this election year even more convinced of the importance of using technology to protect not just the democratic process, but our fundamental freedoms. More than ever, we need ongoing technology innovation and stronger partnerships across the public and private sectors to better defend democracy.

在整個政治光譜上，美國人對民主不僅有共同的承諾，而且保有共同的崇敬。然而，今天民主的健康度不僅取決於個人投票行為。它需要時刻保持警惕，對基於網絡攻擊候選人和投票系統，針對公眾的造謠等進行有效的集體防禦。我們微軟在這個選舉週期，跨黨派保護共和黨和民主黨候選人。在今年選舉結束時，我們更加深信，必須利用技術保護民主進程和我們的基本自由。我們比以往任何時候都更需要持續的技術創新和整個公共和私營部門的更強有力的伙伴關係，以便更好地捍衛民主。

During a time when our daily lives rely so heavily on digital devices, trust in technology has become an issue of paramount importance. People of all political backgrounds care deeply about the privacy of their data and the security of their internet services. The questions around trust in technology continue to become even more multifaceted, now also including digital safety and responsible practices for AI. Yet we continue to live with a national electronic privacy law enacted in the dial-up era of the 1980s, and when it comes to issues such as safeguards for facial recognition, we have no national law at all. We need new laws fit for the future.

在我們日常生活如此依賴數字設備的時候，對技術的信任已經成為一個至關重要的問題。各種政治背景的人都非常關心他們數據的隱私和互聯網服務的安全性。圍繞對技術的信任問題從四面八方湧來，現在還包括數字安全和負責任的人工智能實踐。然而，我們的國家電子隱私法還是1980年代頒布的，至今仍未修訂。當涉及到面部識別防護等問題時，我們沒有任何全國性法律。我們需要適合未來的新法律。

Regardless of political party, people want our economy to prosper. The 20th century saw technology innovation not just spur productivity growth but spread its benefits broadly – to every state and to most industries, creating the foundation for a broadening middle class. As a company that provides so many productivity and other digital services for businesses of all sizes, we have a clear window into the need for a new and similar wave of broader productivity growth. We believe that technology innovation needs to create more business opportunities for every part of the economy as well as ushering in a new era for enhanced public sector services and efficiencies.

無論選哪個政黨，我們都希望經濟繁榮。20世紀，技術創新不僅刺激了生產力的增長，而且將效益廣泛傳播到每個州和大多數行業，為擴大中產階級奠定了基礎。作為一家為各種規模的企業提供這麼多生產力和其他數字服務的公司，我們有一個明確的窗口，了解需要新的和類似的更廣泛的生產力增長浪潮。我們認為，技術創新需要為經濟的每個部分創造更多的商業機會，並開創一個加強公共部門服務和效率的新時代。

When we consider all these issues, it is apparent that there are opportunities to build new bridges between us and to strengthen the ties that bind us in common purpose. All these challenges are ripe for bipartisan collaboration and for government and industry cooperation.

當我們審視所有這些問題時，顯然有機會為我們之間架起新的橋樑，加強把我們聯繫在一起的共同目標。所有這些挑戰對於兩黨合作以及政府和行業合作來說都已經成熟。

This opportunity to build new bridges extends to the international arena as well. We live in a decade that has started with a virus that respects no border and carbon that moves in the atmosphere not just from country to country, but from continent to continent. More and more of the issues of our day require stronger collaboration between the United States and the rest of the world.

建造新橋樑的機會也延伸到國際舞台。這個10年始於一種無國界的，不論各國碳排放水平幾何都一視同仁的病毒，這種病毒跨越國境，遊走於大洲之間。我們的日常問題越來越需要美國和世界其他國家之間加強合作。

None of this means that the differences that divide Americans are unimportant. We live with different views on many fundamental issues. As a company, we have not shied away from controversies that we care about, whether they involve racial equity, immigration or climate change. Under each of the last two American presidents, we found that we were served best by efforts to partner where we can, while standing apart where we should. And we will continue with this approach.

這些都不意味著要忽視那些分裂美國人的分歧。我們在許多基本問題上有不同的看法。作為一家公司，我們並沒有迴避我們關心的爭議，無論這些爭議涉及種族公平、移民還是氣候變化。在近期兩屆總統的任內，我們發現，在自己能夠合作的地方，在應該的地點，我們得到最好的服務。我們將繼續採用這種方法。

Along the way, we have learned that we have far more opportunities to partner across the political spectrum than most people recognize. But we need to move from debates about why we cannot succeed to conversations about how we can. The more bridges we can cross together , the more we likely will find that Americans of all backgrounds in every state and county share far more in common than we currently appreciate.

一路上我們了解到，有更多的機會在各政治派別中合作，比大多數人所認識到的要多。但是，我們需要從關於“為什麼我們不能成功”的辯論轉向關於“我們可以怎麼走下去”的對話。我們一起跨越的橋樑越多，我們就越可能會發現，每個州和縣所有背景的美國人的共同點都比我們目前所欣賞的要多。

As we look to the next four years, this should give us not only reason for hope, but cause for optimism.

當我們展望未來四年時，這不僅應該使我們有理由希望，而且應該引起樂觀。