“政治不是儿戏”，这是对政客的一句著名警告。要想获胜，他们必须像最强悍的棒球运动员一样强硬，向对手投出硬球，并以鞋钉朝上的姿势滑垒。好吧，2026年中期选举如今已经从硬球变成了下三滥。以下是一份卑劣政治广告的清单，其中充斥着可鄙的谎言。让我们把最应受谴责的留到最后。
“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.
首先，右翼抹黑商人在埃隆·马斯克的X平台助力下，用极其虚假的说法诋毁得克萨斯州参议员候选人詹姆斯·塔拉里科（民主党）。他们称这位民主党人离开竞选活动，前往俄亥俄州一家精神病院接受治疗。
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.
这是一个可鄙的谎言。塔拉里科停止竞选活动，是因为他正在从流感中康复。
It was a despicable lie. Talarico stopped campaigning while recovering from the flu.
这一谎言是为了转移视线，掩盖玷污塔拉里科对手、总检察长肯·帕克斯顿（共和党）的多起丑闻。
The lie was a diversion from the multiple scandals tarring Talarico’s opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R).
关于帕克斯顿的真相是，由共和党控制的得克萨斯州众议院于2023年弹劾了他。他的妻子以“圣经依据”提出离婚。作为一名州政府雇员，他如何积聚起据报涵盖15处房产、价值数百万美元的房地产投资组合，他从未给出可信的解释。
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.
他自己的高级职员向联邦调查局报告了他的行为。甚至一些得克萨斯州共和党要人也对此感到厌恶。布什家族成员——芭芭拉·布什和尼尔·布什——支持塔拉里科。在这场比烂竞赛中位居第二的，是针对密歇根州民主党参议员候选人阿卜杜勒·埃尔-赛义德的仇视穆斯林攻击。
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.
他的共和党对手、前众议员迈克·罗杰斯（共和党-密歇根州）将埃尔-赛义德描绘成恐怖主义同情者和穆斯林兄弟会的支持者。罗杰斯是在丑陋地诉诸伊斯兰恐惧症，利用美国穆斯林同情恐怖分子这一偏执观念做文章。
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 sympathies.
罗杰斯愿意利用这种丑陋、充满仇恨的情绪，将萨伊德的母亲和亲戚与与萨伊德毫无关系的社交媒体帖子联系起来。利用人工智能制作的广告展示了一个捏造的萨伊德，对着“美国去死”的呼声大笑。关于穆斯林的可憎谎言，具有剧毒般的分裂性，在“9·11”袭击事件发生25年后依然引起共鸣。
Rogers is willing to exploit that ugly, hateful sentiment by connecting El Sayed’s mother and relatives to social media posts that have nothing to do with El Sayed. Ads made using artificial intelligence show a fabricated El Sayed laughing at calls for “Death to America.”Odious lies about Muslims, so poisonously divisive, still resonate 25 years after the Sept. 11 attacks.
但这还不是2026年这场诽谤大赛中最卑劣行径的赢家。这一耻辱属于俄亥俄州州长候选人维韦克·拉马斯瓦米（共和党）。他的竞选团队播放了一则广告，内容是其州长选举对手、民主党人艾米·阿克顿的年迈母亲指责这位民主党人撒谎，编造童年创伤。
But that is not the winner for the lowest act in this lineup of slander of 2026. That dishonor goes to Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy (R). His campaign ran an in which the elderly mother of his gubernatorial opponent, Amy Acton (D), accuses the Democrat of lying about her childhood traumas.
拉马斯瓦米的政治攻击只字未提阿克顿的继父因虐待一名12岁女孩而被起诉。阿克顿已表明自己就是那个孩子。阿克顿的母亲站在被控虐待女儿的男子一边。拉马斯瓦米无视公开记录，该记录显示阿克顿的继父已被起诉。
Ramaswamy’s political attack has no mention of Acton’s stepfather being charged with abusing a 12-year-old girl. Acton has identified herself as that child. Acton’s mother sided with the man charged with abusing her daughter. Ramaswamy ignored public records showing that Acton’s stepfather was indicted.
在继续与被指控的虐待者保持婚姻关系的同时，母亲失去了阿克顿和她弟弟的监护权，而该男子离开了该州，并未按时出庭。
The mother lost custody of Acton and her brother while remaining married to the accused abuser, who left the state and failed to appear in court.
阿克顿的弟弟菲利普·斯特恩斯猛烈抨击拉马斯瓦米的广告是“卑鄙的低级手段”。斯特恩斯形容拉马斯瓦米是“一个可悲的借口般的男人，只要能达到目的，愿意伤害任何人”。斯特恩斯表示，拉马斯瓦米“将艾米12岁时遭受继父性虐待的经历变成政治谈资，这简直令人难以置信”。多位共和党女性领袖也严厉谴责了拉马斯瓦米。
Acton’s younger brother, Philip Stearns, lashed the Ramaswamy ad as a “despicable low.”Stearns described Ramaswamy as “a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”Stearns said it was unbelievable that Ramaswamy would “turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point.”Leading Republican women also castigated Ramaswamy.
“这则广告将成为本次选举季最可耻、最令人作呕、最具冒犯性的广告，”众议员南希·梅斯（共和党-南卡罗来纳州）对CNN表示。她还说，拉马斯瓦米“设法钻到了这个国家体面底线的最低处之下”。
“This ad is going to go down as the most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this election season,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) told CNN. She added that Ramaswamy has “managed to limbo under the lowest bar of decency in this country.”
拉马斯瓦米的竞选团队没有撤回广告并道歉，反而宣布为这则广告投入400万美元的推广攻势。特朗普总统建议他“继续下去”，给它更多电视播出时间。副总统JD·万斯则把共和党同僚的反对斥为“抱怨”。
Instead of retracting and apologizing for the ad, Ramaswamy’s campaign announced a $4 million push behind the ad. President Trump advised him to “keep it up” by giving it more TV time. Vice President JD Vance dismissed objections from fellow Republicans as “whining.”
万斯本月早些时候在一场集会上进一步对“行动”组织进行卑劣攻击，称她是“疯子”，还可能是酒鬼。万斯是这样说的：“我确实向艾米承诺过，晚些时候会在酒吧见她。我知道她喜欢那种事。”儿童虐待一直是这些中期选举中反复出现的阴暗议题。拉马斯瓦米事件发生之际，俄亥俄州的共和党人正花费数百万美元力推众议员马克斯·米勒（共和党）连任。
Vance added to the contemptible attack on Action by saying at a rally earlier this month that she is a “crazy person,” and possibly a drunk. Here is Vance: “I did promise Amy that I would meet her at a bar later. I understand she is into that kind of thing.”Child abuse has been a dark recurring issue in these midterms. The Ramaswamy episode comes as Republicans in Ohio are spending millions to reelect Rep. Max Miller (R).
米勒的前妻指控他虐待她和他们年幼的女儿。孩子的祖父、参议员伯尼·莫雷诺（共和党-俄亥俄州）称米勒不适合任职，并要求他辞职。然而，与共和党结盟的国会领导基金已在这场选战中预订了超过500万美元的电视广告。
His former wife has accused him of abusing her and their young daughter. The child’s grandfather, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), has called Miller unfit to serve and demanded his resignation. Yet the Republican-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund has booked more than $5 million in television advertising in the race.
在1993年的一篇文章中，参议员丹尼尔·帕特里克·莫伊尼汉（民主党-纽约州）创造了名言“向下定义异常行为”。特朗普总统以其抓女性生殖器的臭名昭著言论以及与一名色情女演员的牵连，加速了这一向下螺旋，将卑劣政治言论的门槛降至新的最低点。
In a 1993 essay, Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) famously coined the phrase “defining deviancy downward.”President Trump with his infamous claim to grab women by the genitals and involvement with a porn actress has accelerated that downward spiral, lowering the bar for wretched political discourse to new nadirs.
拉马斯瓦米曾因我在专栏中批评他搞种族政治，而给我发了一封愤怒的邮件。该专栏聚焦于他的一番言论：“我确信美国某个地方肯定存在着那个‘白人至上主义恶魔’。我只是从未遇见过他，也从未见过一个。”我说他在为赢取白人选民，不顾一切地假装白人种族主义已不复存在。如今，拉马斯瓦米对阿克顿发动的攻势极具冒犯性，让他早先那些低级的种族主义伎俩显得微不足道。我们已跌落至比那些伎俩更低的深渊。这是“进沟里”的政治时代。
Ramaswamy once sent me an angry email after I criticized him in this column for playing racial politics. The column focused on his statement: “I’m sure the boogeyman white supremacists exist somewhere in America. I have just never met him. Never seen one.”I said he was recklessly pretending there was no more white racism in order to win over white voters. Now Ramaswamy’s offensive attack on Acton makes his earlier lowbrow racist tactics look like nothing. We have sunk far below them. This is the age of get-in-the-gutter politics.
胡安·威廉姆斯是福克斯新闻频道资深政治分析师，也是屡获殊荣的民权史学家。他是新书《New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement》（暂译《这些眼睛的新奖赏：美国第二次民权运动的兴起》）的作者。
Juan Williams is senior political analyst for Fox News Channel and a prize-winning civil rights historian. He is the author of the new book “New Prize for These Eyes: The Rise of America’s Second Civil Rights Movement.“