Are political ads a mirror of who we are?

“The sponsors my friend will sell you all they can” was a Mad Magazine lament sung to “Blowing in the Wind.” The midterm election cycle filled with semi-clandestine sponsors selling the usual nasty, dirty and negative messages. Do ethical standards still matter or have our elections become the triumph of pathos (Emotion) over ethos (Ethics)?

Politicians still believe negative advertising works. Such vile ads proliferate because negative ads work, plain and simple. For the last decade, a lot of Americans know the ads have been made of lies, but they have trusted the message anyway.

Show me the money

The clearest indication of the abiding belief in negative advertising – the money spent. The political ad tracker projects total spending for the 2026 cycle will now reach $11.6 billion, fully surpassing the $8.9 billion spent during the 2022 midterm season and the $11.2 billion spent during the 2024 presidential election year. Candidates and political action groups spent over $6 billion on TV ads.

The truest believer was Elon Musk. He practically owns the “Money River” made famous in Kurt Vonnegut’s, God Bless You Mr. Rainwater. He has given more money during the midterm elections than any donor has ever spent in a single election cycle. He has contributed a stunning amount: $474 million, or nearly half a billion dollars.

How many elections can you win with a half billion dollars? Republican candidates begged billionaires for more money. They sounded like the English cottage in D. H. Lawrence’s “Rocking Horse Winner,” “There must be more money.” I sighed with relief when money didn’t win the election. I felt government of the people, by the people and for the people showed up and showed out. The reports of democracy’s death turned out to be exaggerated.

I renewed by commitment to Jesus’ repeated warning about the danger of wealth. Jesus says quite plainly, “You cannot serve God and wealth.” James argues, “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You covet something and cannot obtain it, so you engage in disputes and conflicts.” Was this election more about God than money, to put it in traditional biblical terms? Thank God, “In Money we trust” took a shellacking.

For the past 10 years, as a preacher I have watched as my commitments to truth and decency were threatened. Pundits bemoaned the lack of a “bottom” – there seemed no limit to how much our leaders would lie and how vile they would become. I feel as if my standards are lowered when I make an appeal for decency and allow the higher standards of hospitality, empathy and compassion to remain in the shadows.

Political advertisers are not required to meet any legal standards for truth. While the Federal Trade Commission prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practices” in commerce, covering false claims, misrepresentations, and omissions of material facts, political ads are exempt from the standard.

Since I believe ethical standards, decency, reasons and tradition matter, the last decade has been a descent into darkness. Was there a bottom?

One can watch enough political ads as evidence there is no bottom. There is no limit to how low political groups will go to destroy opponents. Political ads are the “canary in the mine.” They show the “bottom” – how low people will go to win.

Three of my friends helped me create the “Bottom of the Barrel Awards.” Here are the three bottom-of -the-barrel political ads from the midterm election.

Willie Horton Redoux

Louisiana Senate candidate Julia Letlow won a close race with a closing ad right out of the old Republican racist playbook. There was no avoiding the Willie Horton comparison from 1988. The ad shows an AI depiction of Jamie Davis slowly moving from the background of the scene toward the living rooms of Louisiana residents. The large, menacing, dangerous-looking Black man has the “Willie Horton” ad all over it. The most ancient racist meme in history fills this vile ad: The strong Black buck coming for the women and children.

President Trump used “Willie Horton” in his North Carolina rally to stir emotions and outrage about crime and Democratic Senate candidate, Roy Cooper.

Ex-wife attack ad

The most brutal ad produced by the Democrats was also the most effective: Allegations against Representative Max Miller, Republican of Ohio, lists accusations by Miller’s ex-wife: he scalded her with hot water from a skillet and fractured his daughter’s collarbone. (Mr. Miller has denied the domestic abuse allegations and claimed that his ex-wife has mental health challenges.) The ad worked but it still belongs on the bottom.

Ruthless Ramaswamy ad

The most ruthless ad was produced by Vivek Ramaswamy, Ohio Republican candidate for governor. The vile spot shows the estranged mother of Mr. Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, describing her as a liar and urging voters not to support her.

An ad from Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio, quickly rocked his race, divided Republicans across the country and became a symbol of the ugly tenor of the midterms.

The explosive spot shows the estranged mother of Mr. Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, describing her as a liar and urging voters not to support her.

Who does that? Who uses a “mother” in an attack ad? President Trump said he was jealous he didn’t have such an ad. Vice President JD Vance said he was “disgusted” to see Republicans “whining” about the ad.

The words resonating for me came from President Barack Obama. He said he did not “know what’s happened where the standards of behavior have gotten so low that somebody can run an ad like that.”

I keep repeating the question of U. S. Army counsel Joseph N. Welch to Senator Joe McCarthy, “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” The Blue wave was a win for decency.

The midterms returned some of the flavor of mainline, progressive Christianity to the political recipe. Normal people talking about decency, love and forgiveness were a breath of fresh air. The Age of Trump has done no favors for Christianity, but a return to decency gives everyone hope.