Trump and Vance accelerate downward political spiral

“Politics ain’t beanbag,” is a famous warning to politicians. They have to tough as the toughest baseball players to win, throwing hardballs at opponents and sliding with their spikes up. Well, the 2026 midterms have now gone from hardball to lowball.

Here is a list of scummy political advertising, complete with despicable lies.

Let’s save the most reprehensible for last.

First, right-wing smear merchants, aided by Elon Musk’s X platform, trashed Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D) with wretchedly false claims. They said the Democrat left the campaign trail for treatment at an Ohio hospital for the insane. 

It was a despicable lie. Talarico stopped campaigning while recovering from the flu.

The lie was a diversion from the multiple scandals tarring Talarico’s opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).

The truth about Paxton is that a Republican-controlled Texas House impeached him in 2023. His wife filed for divorce on “Biblical grounds.” He has offered no credible explanation for how, as a state government employee, he amassed a multimillion-dollar real estate portfolio reportedly encompassing 15 properties.

His own senior staff reported his conduct to the FBI. Even some leading Texas Republicans are repulsed. Members of the Bush family — Barbara Bush and Neil Bush — are supporting Talarico. Second in the race to the bottom is the Muslim hating attacks on Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), his Republican opponent, portrays El-Sayed as a terrorist sympathizer and supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. Rogers is making an ugly appeal to Islamophobia, trading on the bigoted idea that American Muslims have terrorist........

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