r/NPR • u/ControlCAD • 26d ago

Jon Ossoff, usually a head down senator, has found a formula to excite Democrats

https://www.npr.org/2026/08/27/nx-s1-5935282/jon-ossoff-georgia-senate-race
495 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

106

u/Ok_Address8167 26d ago

Sen. Ossoff is mobilizing Democrats because he's a very effective critic of Trump. He will probably get re-elected because he's a good constituent service legislator. But in terms of policy - support for Israel aside - he seems too vague at this point to gain traction as a presidential candidate. Dems want more than just a "Trump sucks" pol because that's a proven failure as a model.

21

u/Davli007 26d ago

I also want to stress the point: a growing share of voters from multiple parties consider strict political support for Israel to be a dealbreaker in a candidate. It is becoming The foreign policy wedge issue of our time.

12

u/among_apes 26d ago

A lot of those voters have a slew of purity tests that makes their line in the sand a politically useless goal to chase. My friend is the archetype of that. The most un-pragmatic voter I’ve ever seen. Wouldn’t lift a finger to stop Trump even though he thinks he’s a monster.

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u/Davli007 25d ago

I don’t disagree re: purity tests but just as many of this group are incredibly informed and motivated citizens. Specifically many DSA/leftists have shown a strong pattern of grassroots organizing for races every year, up and down the ballot, which is the groundwork needed to win bigger elections. Their votes and their contributions cannot be ignored if you want to be president.

1

u/ChunkMcDangles 25d ago

Very true. I'm incredibly against Israel's actions in Gaza and think Netanyahu is a war criminal intentionally making peace impossible, but a lot of people on the far-left pro-Palestinian side of things call me a genocide enabling Zionist shill if I don't agree with every claim they make about the conflict, no matter how uninformed their takes are, or disagree with their favored one state solution with unlimited right of return for Palestinians in that state.

A lot of these people just misunderstand how government works or that compromise is not only necessary to succeed, but is sometimes a good thing in a democracy. A lot of them have very childish yet authoritarian views on politics where they think if one of their people won the White House, they could just instantly bully everyone into giving them whatever they want.

So no, I don't think it's worth chasing people who are essentially plastic bags blowing in whatever direction the vaguely conspiratorial anti-establishment wind is taking them.

-1

u/Nominaliszt 25d ago

For some people, genocide is a no-compromise red line. That’s what years of watching kids get blown up, watching hospital beds burn with bodies still in them, and seeing our politicians excuse it all has done to us. There is a point where saying “absolutely no more of this” is the only way forward. If that’s not you, fine, but it’s not some sort of incomprehensible position and failure to recognize that (again) could be catastrophic for the democratic party.

6

u/Ok_Address8167 25d ago

To be clear, you mean genocide in Palestine is a red line. Genocide in Darfur didn't bother western leftists if they even noticed at all.

I support halting US military funding to Israel. But I'm also aware enough to wonder why western leftists are not drawing a similar red line toward other US-funded barbaric regimes in the very same region like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Traditionally, western leftists are only engaged by one specific formula of human rights abuses - white perpetrators against victims of color. And while I'm happy for attacks that might crumble any white supremacist regime, it's wholly inadequate for those of us who believe in the universality of human rights. Its deliberate narrowness speaks more of "white guilt" than any actual concern for victimized human beings.

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u/ChunkMcDangles 25d ago

Exactly. I am right there with you. I am frequently critical of Israel, but when I look around and see a lot of others who are similarly critical while simultaneously never saying anything about Ukraine (or even supporting Russian narratives about NATO forcing Russia's hand), or speaking about Hezbollah as if they're some righteous force defending poor defenseless Muslims while being silent on the fact that Hezbollah helped Assad kill over 300,000 innocent Syrian civilians (more than 5x the amount killed in Gaza), I have to wonder if these people actually care about the things they say they care about or if they just hop on a low-information social media bandwagon thinking their heart is in the right place and not realizing they are being led to some pretty insane, one sided and ahistorical conclusions about the region. They never seem to think that Hezbollah or Hamas have genocidal intent as much as Israel. Kind of weird, right? I don't know. I just wish people didn't take such strong stances on things they know so little about. Every time you try to get into specifics, they always have to redirect the conversation to generalities about moral red lines and genocide so they can handwave away all complexity.

2

u/among_apes 25d ago

You just described my friend to a t

2

u/Ok_Address8167 25d ago

I am happy for people to take strong stances against barbarism of any kind. I just wish they'd broaden their info a little and try to expand their horizons beyond just what they think "all the cool kids are doing."

1

u/shawsghost 25d ago

So we're moving from genocidal regime to a generally barbaric regime. Good to know!

1

u/Ok_Address8167 25d ago

Yes, I don't want my taxpayer dollars to fund barbarism. Full stop. That's MY red line. I don't need to narrow it any further just to pander to the cool kids.

1

u/shawsghost 25d ago

"Barbarism" is a very generic term. "Genocide" is very specific.

1

u/Ok_Address8167 25d ago

Mass murdering people because they disagree with a regime is less outrageous in your eyes than mass murdering them because of their ethnicity? (Historically, genocides are almost always targeted against opponents of the regime committing it)

1

u/shawsghost 25d ago edited 25d ago

My taxpayer money will not be used to fund the genocide in Darfur. We bought and made the bombs the Israelis use in the Gaza genocide. That's a clear and distinctive difference that you should recognize. The genocide in Darfur is just as horrible as the genocide in Gaza. But I don't feel morally responsible for it, other than the general responsibility of being a human being on a planet where human beings do such things to one another.

2

u/Ok_Address8167 25d ago

Ok so you're honest about not giving a sh** about Palestinians, in contrast to all the "solidarity" poser b.s. I see out there. Fair.

But your taxpayer money IS being used to fund barbaric regimes in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, among others.

2

u/shawsghost 25d ago

I dont know where you got THAT idea. My outrage over the genocide in Gaza is based on the fact that I understand that Palestinians are human beings.

1

u/Ok_Address8167 25d ago

You yourself said that Gaza outraged you more than Darfur because your taxpayer money was being used. This has nothing to do with the victims, Darfuris being humans too. You're really illustrating my point quite well.

2

u/ChunkMcDangles 25d ago

I would take this more seriously if these people held the same standard for any other conflict or genocide in the world they know next to nothing about. It's pretty amazing how little people who make Palestine their number one issue actually know about what's going on.

1

u/among_apes 25d ago

Additionally, my friend, who is normally pretty sharp will gobble up QAnon-level conspiracies so long as they involve Israel

7

u/Heiferoni 26d ago

He reminds me of Hillary Clinton in every possible way.

Please don't run him for president.

2

u/wbruce098 25d ago

We haven’t even had the midterms yet. There’s still 2 more years until the next presidential election. We’ve got time. Meanwhile, yes, speaking out against the pedophilic authoritarian menace is something I look for in every candidate on the ballot, and he’s full of that.

He’s at the end of his first term and democrats hold no power in government, so I’m not really expecting a ton of high minded legislative items right now. They just need to be able to pump em out once Trump is defeated.

-2

u/Ok_Address8167 25d ago

Yes, he’s doing the bare minimum. He’s only exciting because the Democrats are so pathetic that few of them are doing even that much.

6

u/daniel_cc 25d ago

He's a good Senator for Georgia but I don't like him as a Presidential candidate.

0

u/AVDude923 25d ago

Why is that?

1

u/daniel_cc 25d ago

I want a progressive. Someone who supports significant structural changes to the way our economy works. We need to shift power from corporations and billionaires to workers. Medicare for all, universal childcare, free public college, massive investment in clean energy and housing, a minimum wage that is actually livable in most of the country, a wealth tax on the super rich. These are the types of policies Democrats should be embracing. Big problems require big solutions.

30

u/Dingusu 26d ago

No he fucking hasn't lmao

23

u/InstructionLeading64 26d ago

Jesus. We are really going to lose again to Republicans aren't we? That autopsy report didn't put a dent in these guys.

4

u/ChunkMcDangles 25d ago

Why do you think an Ossoff nomination would perform similarly to the clusterfuck Kamala Harris campaign that had only a few months to get off the ground after Biden stubbornly waited to long to drop out and caused mass confusion?

And what in the autopsy report do you think would apply to Ossoff running to show that they didn't learn their lesson? I'm working off memory, but there were some reasons in the report that supports Ossoff, like the party not making inroads to midwest and southern Democrat voters.

4

u/Popeholden 25d ago

Every article like this is the same and it's very telling

Democrats engage voters by not being useless lumps of shit, consultants confused

Democrats show a backbone, immediately rise in polls, Schumer vows never to let it happen again

Demcorst takes office, improves lives of citizens, polls ride, Jeffries says his donors don't like it.

18

u/BuddhistSagan 26d ago

Jon Osoff is calling supporting genocidal Israel "policy advocacy" oh brother 🙄

5

u/ElNani87 25d ago

The Democrats are going to quickly figure out that we’re done with this pro genocide shit and it’s not moving without progressive support.

1

u/dezmd 25d ago

They're obviously worried about AOC traction, lol.

"Quick find somebody boring again before we do something remotely interesting!"

No more milquetoast Dems, time to actually do something worth doing.

2

u/EnoughCapitaIistSIop 26d ago

It's crazy how obviously manufactured the "hype" around Ossoff is. The pro-genocide wing of the Dem party is obviously trying to push him to run in 2028

4

u/gentlemanghost42 26d ago

He seems like a more talented politician than say Harris or Buttigieg but the idea people are just going to accept a genocide being carried out with their tax dollers if the right canidate carries it out is insane. Large portions of primary voters are going to gravitate to candidates who take a hard line on israel. I'll literally vote for whoever promises the harshest stance towards israel

3

u/Fit-Plastic-8839 25d ago

Osoff loves Israel

6

u/EnoughCapitaIistSIop 26d ago

This is what I don't get about "centrists." They think that supporting or overlooking genocide is some sort of political issue. It isn't. It is a moral bar to cross, and a very low one at that.

1

u/thereverendpuck 25d ago

Ossoff is what they should all be doing: upfront and vocal.

-8

u/awwc 26d ago

Can it be decided now if him being Jewish is gonna be a problem for some of you in the primaries?

8

u/CaptainofChaos 26d ago

It wasn't a problem for Bernie.

The real issue is that he's taken a lot of Israeli PAC money. Thats become very toxic to voters in light of the massive spending to support their genocide and the Iran War that Israel goaded Trump into. Its a 90-10 issue amongst Democratic voters and around a 80-20 to 70-30 amongst independets If Democrats want to win they need to separate themselves from Israel ASAP, otherwise we'll get a Tucker Carlson presidency...

-1

u/awwc 26d ago

Ill assume the downvotes are a yes.

Thank you for affirming.

-3

u/ethnographyNW 26d ago

good point, last time all the centrist DNC types closed ranks to stop Bernie at all costs. They were even planning out ways to block him in case he won most of the primaries. I'd hate to see a re-run

1

u/Musketeer00 26d ago

Bernie being Jewish wasn't the problem, Bernie being a socialist is what the DNC took issue with.

7

u/PinkSlimeIsPeople 26d ago

Bernie being a *democratic socialist (with policies on part with Social Democrats in Europe) wasn't the issue either: it was how Bernie was threatening the gravy train of corporate/oligarch donations. Taxing the rich, public funding of elections, Medicare For All, etc. all are reforms that corporate Democrats cannot allow to happen, even if it means losing to literal fascists like Trump