One side benefit of having to watch all the Red Sox games as Boston closes in on a serious run for the 2026 World Series is getting a chance to see the various campaign ads for Congressional candidates in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and the other New England states served by the New England Sports Network (NESN) that broadcasts the games to “Red Sox Nation.” Let me rephrase that: getting the chance to see how idiotic the ads are.
The one you see above, by Democrat Chris Pappas, is easily the best of the dozens of ads I have seen, and it’s idiotic—infuriatingly vague, misleading, and using broad innuendos that don’t make any sense.
What restaurant has “VIP sections”? The analogy between a restaurant and Congress is so strained it makes my brain hurt. What does “play by their own rules” mean?
I view any Democrat as ethically estopped from complaining about members of Congress engaging in stock trading. The most powerful Democrat in Congress for decades, Nancy Pelosi, was also the most flagrant beneficiary of Congressional inside trading. The Trump Administration has done a great deal to lower prescription drug prices, but nothing except nationalized health care or government guaranteed income can prevent citizens from having to make choices regarding how to spend their money.
But, again, this is by far the best ad I’ve seen. Several boast that they should be elected to Congress to “stand up to Trump.” What does that mean? The Democrats will vote against anything Trump supports even if its rainbows and lollipops. “Standing up to Trump” means what, making mean faces at him? Insulting him, like members of The Squad or Jasmine Crockett? How does that help constituents? Many also say they will “stand up to” or “oppose” I.C.E. Does that mean they support open borders? Do they not want to get the dangerous illegals out of their constituency? Or are these just meaningless, focus group-tested buzz words? Almost all of them say that if elected they will “bring costs down.” Do they not know that costs as a whole never “come down,” do they think people are so stupid they don’t know that, or are people so stupid they really think that?
Maybe it’s my imagination, but I don’t think so: I remember campaign ads once containing occasional genuine, practical, achievable policy positions. Now its all virtue signaling: Elect me because I hate Trump. Elect me because I don’t like I.C.E. Elect me because I’d really like to do all of these things I won’t have the power to do but at least I have good intentions.
Who are the morons here? Everyone?
Ethics Alarms 
At the risk of commenting on a second recent campaign ad post, let me take a psychographic shot at this one.
The target audience is what is known as Believers in the Values and Lifestyles VALS psychographic system. They are comforted by those who address their socio-cultural beliefs and reinforce them. This is what you are seeing play out in the ads.
Republicans in the main are more Thinkers in VALS system. They are looking for rational policy alignments and outcomes they think will come from their favored policies.
Hope this sheds some light.
This is boilerplate speak. If they are specific about what they are going to do, it risks votes. Stand up to Trump means however way the individual viewer interprets it. Both parties do this and it’s wrong, but this is like the deficit. Nothing will change until voters demand better.
Look at the Democratic Party. What do they stand for? What are their ideals? That is what you run on, your ideals.
Democratic Ideals as far as I can tell.
Unlimited illegal aliens, no matter how violent
Violent criminals keep the population asking for more government, so keep them out of prison.
Cancel, arrest, and/or imprison anyone who speaks out against Democratic Party objectives
More government programs so the money can be siphoned off to the Democratic Party and its allies.
Abort as many children as possible so they can be replaced with illegal immigrants who will work in near slave conditions.
Get rid of competent people through DEI programs. Incompetent people are easier to control.
Only victims are good people. Anyone who can function without the government is an oppressor and needs to be oppressed by the government…for equity.
All intersectional drivel must be believed, even though it is not logically consistent. People must oppose antisemitism, but also believe that Palestinians should be able to kill Jews because it is genocide to NOT kill all the Jews. If you can hold those positions at the same time, you will believe anything you are told. If you believe that not supporting Palestinians killing Jews is acting ‘just like Hitler’, you are a good Democrat.
Anyone who thinks the point above is stupid or contradictory must be some sort of Trump supporter. Trump doesn’t follow the point above, so he must be opposed. His supporters probably believe in independent thought and need to be opposed as well.
Trump is Hitler because he supports Jews in Israel.
You will own nothing and you WILL be happy…or else.
OK, YOU try to make TV ads supporting that that make sense.
Some interesting things:
DNC money raised
2020 $457 million
2022 $966 million
2024 $1.3 billion
Jan 2025-July 2026 $216 million
The picture with PAC’s is even worse. Normally, the Democrats have more money than the Republicans, but this time, the Republicans may have as much as 3 times the money Democrats have. The RNC has $128 million in the bank and the DNC has $16 million ( and $18 million of that is borrowed).
Rap song sales have declined, although it is hard to find out how much because if you search it it only lists Kennedy Center sales declines. But no rap album reached the top 200 for the first 6 months of this year and no single broke the top 100 until August, despite being assured it is the top genre in the country.
The BBC had to stop funding a lot of other media outlets to support their narrative after they lost $3.2 million in US taxpayer funding. Politico lost $32 million in federal funding. Reuter’s lost $9 million.
This all happened after Trump started looking into USAID and other federal funding agencies.
“I believe in coincidences. Coincidences happen every day, but I don’t TRUST coincidences.” -Elim Garak. DS9