It’s finally election day after a long and bruising campaign season. Regardless of who ends up controlling the House and the Senate, this election season will be remembered for two ads, one from the Right and one from the Left, which defined it by finding new lows in American politics. Yet they also revealed that many Americans—on either side—had found their floor in terms of what they would tolerate from people seeking office.

The first ad was put out by the Republican candidate for governor in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy. The ad featured the biological mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, calling her daughter a liar. It seemed like powerful stuff, until you learned the backstory: Acton’s mother has not seen her daughter since Amy was 12.…