AOC calls 'Woke 1' crazy — is she rewriting history or growing up?
Intra-Party Split Detected
AOC and centrist Democrats (Third Way) welcome the move away from 2020-era progressive rhetoric, while progressive voices (The Intercept, Rep. Ro Khanna, some Guardian columnists) argue she's mischaracterizing or too easily disowning the substance of 'Woke 1' protests and policies like defunding police.
Left says
- •AOC's shift reflects legitimate political maturation, distinguishing the urgency of a once-in-a-century public health crisis from a coherent governing philosophy, and Democrats should be judged on their current platforms rather than statements made under extraordinary 2020 circumstances.
- •The word 'woke' itself has been so thoroughly weaponized by conservatives that its meaning is largely incoherent, and progressives adopting it to criticize their own past excesses risks legitimizing a right-wing framing device.
- •Some argue AOC's framing misdirects blame: the real embarrassment of 2020 was performative centrist gestures like kente-cloth kneeling and empty police reform bills, not the underlying protests against racialized policing and mass incarceration.
- •Democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders and DSA nationally stayed neutral in races like Hong's rather than actively distancing themselves, showing AOC's positioning is her own strategic choice rather than a movement-wide retreat.
Right says
- •AOC and other Democrats want to erase a well-documented record of embracing defunding police, prison abolition, decriminalizing border crossings, and abolishing ICE and the Department of Homeland Security without ever explaining what specifically changed their minds.
- •Laughing off 'Woke 1' as a pandemic-era anomaly is factually inaccurate since many of AOC's most extreme statements, including on prison abolition and rhetoric justifying rioting, predate the COVID lockdowns entirely.
- •The real-world consequences of these policies, including a roughly 30% spike in the murder rate and surges in other violent crime, deserve accountability rather than a dismissive chuckle and rebrand.
- •When directly pressed by Sunday show hosts on whether they agreed 'Woke 1' was crazy, Democratic officials like Ro Khanna dodged the question entirely, revealing the party still lacks a unified, honest answer about which past positions it actually regrets.
Common Take
High Consensus- AOC used the phrase 'Woke 1 was crazy' in an ABC News interview, quoting New York City Councilman Chi Ossé.
- AOC previously supported or expressed openness to defunding the police, decriminalizing border crossings, and possibly abolishing the Department of Homeland Security.
- Francesca Hong lost Wisconsin's Democratic gubernatorial primary by a narrow margin after past comments about cancelling Thanksgiving and defunding police resurfaced.
- Cultural progressivism from the 2018-2021 period has become a political liability that many Democrats, including Gavin Newsom and Zohran Mamdani, are now distancing themselves from.
The Arguments
Right argues
AOC's timeline doesn't hold up: her most extreme statements, including calls for prison abolition in 2019 and justifying rioting that same year, predate COVID entirely, undermining her claim that pandemic-era desperation explains the excesses of 'Woke 1.'
Left counters
Even if some remarks predate the pandemic, AOC's broader point stands that a compressed, high-pressure period of national crisis produced rhetorical excesses across the party that don't reflect a coherent, lasting governing philosophy, and voters should judge candidates on what they propose now.
Left argues
The word 'woke' has been so relentlessly weaponized by conservatives to mean almost anything progressives say or do that it no longer functions as a meaningful description of any actual policy position, and progressives adopting it risks legitimizing a hostile framing device built to discredit them regardless of the substance.
Right counters
If the term is truly incoherent, that's all the more reason Democrats should stop hiding behind vague semantic objections and instead give specific, direct answers about which concrete policies — defunding police, decriminalizing border crossings, abolishing ICE — they still support or have abandoned.
Right argues
When directly asked on Sunday shows whether they agreed 'Woke 1' was crazy, Democrats like Ro Khanna dodged with rhetorical evasions rather than giving straight answers, revealing the party still has no unified, honest account of what it regrets from that era.
Left counters
The lack of a unified party-wide script isn't evidence of dishonesty but of genuine diversity within the coalition; Khanna's refusal to distance himself from Francesca Hong shows he's taking a principled stand rather than following AOC's positioning, which is itself proof there's no coordinated cover-up.
Left argues
AOC's 'Woke 1' framing conveniently deflects blame from what was actually embarrassing about 2020 — hollow centrist theater like kente-cloth kneeling and toothless police reform bills that went nowhere — while implicitly disparaging the underlying uprisings against racialized policing that were a justified response to real injustice.
Right counters
Regardless of which specific 2020 behaviors were most embarrassing, the tangible policy consequences that followed — a roughly 30% national murder rate spike and surges in violent crime — flowed directly from the defund-the-police push AOC herself championed, not from Pelosi's photo-ops.
Right argues
Voters deserve a specific accounting of what changed AOC's mind on policies she once championed — defunding police, decriminalizing border crossings, abolishing ICE and DHS — rather than a laugh and a vague gesture toward 'growth,' especially given the real-world costs those policies incurred.
Left counters
Demanding an exhaustive point-by-point recantation is a standard no politician on either side is held to when their views evolve; James Carville's formulation — 'I'm grown' — reflects how voters generally understand political maturation without requiring a forensic audit of every past tweet.
Challenge Questions
These questions target genuine internal contradictions — meant to provoke honest reflection.
Right asks Left
“If AOC's 2020-era positions were genuinely just a product of pandemic-era desperation rather than sincere conviction, why did she continue defending and even expanding on several of these same policies — like sponsoring a bill to decriminalize border crossings in 2023 — well after the pandemic had ended?”
Left asks Right
“If Republicans believe unpopular past statements should permanently disqualify politicians from being taken at their word when they evolve, does that same standard apply to Republican officials who have reversed long-held positions on issues like trade, entitlements, or their past statements about January 6?”
Outlier Report
Left Fringe
The Intercept's writers and DSA-aligned figures like Chi Ossé (who coined the phrase) and defenders of Francesca Hong represent a fringe (roughly 15-20% of the left) who still defend 2020-era defund/abolition rhetoric as substantively correct rather than merely tactically unpopular.
Right Fringe
Commentators at The Federalist and some MAGA-aligned figures who treat this as proof of intentional deception rather than normal political evolution represent a smaller but vocal fringe (~20-25% of the right) demanding item-by-item public confessions, a framing many casual conservative-leaning voters find excessive.
Noise Assessment
High noise: this is largely an elite media and political-class conversation (Axios, Third Way, DSA infighting, cable news loyalty tests) that most ordinary Americans are not closely following; general public sentiment is more diffuse and less partisan-coded than the discourse suggests.
Sources (7)
<p>New York Rep. <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/01/aoc-liberal-democrats-2028" target="_blank">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> is laughing off <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/style/woke-1-aoc-dsa.html" target="_blank">"Woke 1."</a> But she's carrying baggage from the 2020 era of cultural progressivism that some Democrats say is an obstacle to a future presidential run.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> AOC's pivot to the cultural center — which she began to roll out last week in a high-profile <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFwAnMLBSOw" target="_blank">ABC interview</a> by saying, "Woke 1 was crazy" — is potential damage control for her past remarks about law enforcement, immigration and a range of social issues.</p><hr /><ul><li>Ocasio-Cortez told ABC that the left's so-called excesses of that period were partly the result of the COVID pandemic and lockdowns.</li><li>But she made some of her most controversial remarks before the pandemic hit the U.S. in 2020.</li><li>"This is really going to be something that handicaps her,<strong> </strong>especially with demographics that are culturally more moderate," former Biden White House adviser Yemisi Egbewole told us, pointing to Black voters in the South who have a large voice in Democratic presidential primaries.</li></ul><p><strong>Flashback:</strong> In the early 2020s, Ocasio-Cortez was one of the most aggressive and<strong> </strong><a href="https://x.com/ashley_quan/status/1271179469382979584/photo/1" target="_blank">well-known</a> <a href="https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/in-the-news/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-was-asked-about-defunding-police-and-her-answer-went?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">advocates</a> for "defunding" the police — an idea that polls have long shown is not popular.</p><ul><li>In the summer of 2020, she <a href="https://x.com/TweetBenMax/status/1277994205521096707" target="_blank">blasted</a> New York City's government for proposing to cut its police department by only $1 billion. </li><li>"Defunding police means defunding police," she said then. "It does not mean budget tricks or funny math." She added: "The fight to defund policing continues."</li></ul><p><strong>In 2019, AOC</strong> <strong>posted</strong> on <a href="https://x.com/AOC/status/1181196457145225216?s=20" target="_blank">social media</a> that "we need to have a real conversation about decarceration & prison abolition in this country."</p><ul><li>She <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-says-some-marginalized-communities-have-no-choice-but-to-riot/" target="_blank">said</a> that year that some marginalized groups "have no choice but to riot."</li><li>And she <a href="https://x.com/OurRevolution/status/1419029534184181762?s=20" target="_blank">said</a> at an event in 2021: "I want to abolish our carceral system that's designed to trap Black and brown men."</li></ul><p><strong>On immigration,</strong> Ocasio-Cortez <a href="https://chuygarcia.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/chuygarcia-evo.house.gov/files/New%20Way%20Forward%20Section-by-Section.pdf" target="_blank">sponsored a bill</a> in 2021 and 2023 to decriminalize border crossings. Asked by the New Yorker in 2019 if she would get rid of the Department of Homeland Security, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-on-the-2020-presidential-race-and-trumps-crisis-at-the-border?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">she said</a>: "I think so. I think so."</p><ul><li>She repeatedly <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/politics/aoc-blasts-fellow-democrats-for-resisting-term-latinx-not-about-your-reelection-prospects/" target="_blank">used</a> language en vogue in elite liberal circles, such as the gender-neutral term "Latinx" in the early 2020s — a word that surveys have found <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/12/latinx-awareness-has-doubled-among-u-s-hispanics-since-2019-but-only-4-percent-use-it/" target="_blank">isn't used</a> by the vast majority of Latino Americans.</li><li>She used the phrase <a href="https://x.com/AC360/status/1435401902393544707" target="_blank">"menstruating person"</a> in 2021 to be inclusive of the transgender community.</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom out: </strong>AOC now has shifted her rhetoric but hasn't detailed where she currently stands on many of these politically fraught topics, or what made her change her views on "Woke 1."</p><ul><li>Ocasio-Cortez's spokespeople didn't respond to several questions, including what her position is now on defunding the police, whether she supports decriminalizing the border, and if she thinks rioting is sometimes justified.</li><li>In her ABC interview, Ocasio-Cortez did say that she doesn't support some Democratic Socialists of America's proposals such as abolishing police and prisons, defunding the Department of Defense and granting amnesty to all immigrants.</li></ul><p><strong>The other side: </strong>Some Republicans argue that AOC would be a formidable presidential candidate despite her controversial positions in the past.</p><ul><li>"To me, she's incredibly dangerous," said GOP pollster Brent Buchanan, noting that AOC has high name recognition<strong> </strong>and an impressive favorability rating for a nationally known figure who's faced years of attacks.</li><li>He shared his polling that shows Ocasio-Cortez is seen favorably by 39% of voters, compared with 42% who view her unfavorably — a rating similar to Secretary of State Marco Rubio's.</li><li>Ocasio-Cortez's recent cultural moderation "tells me she's a good politician, because she's doing it now instead of next year," Buchanan added.</li></ul><p><strong>Democratic strategist James Carville</strong> likewise praised AOC, telling us that "it's always been evident that she's more talented than the rest of them put together," a reference to other members of the "Squad" of House progressives.</p><ul><li>Carville said AOC doesn't need to over-explain her changes of heart: "She can say: 'I'm grown,' and people understand that."</li></ul><p><strong>Wisconsin's recent gubernatorial primary</strong> showed how cultural progressivism can be an albatross for the left — even at a time when economic populism is gaining momentum.</p><ul><li>Socialist Francesca Hong lost by just under 4,000 votes after struggling to explain why she previously had called to "cancel Thanksgiving."</li><li>AOC declined to endorse Hong — the latest sign of her move to the center.</li></ul><p><strong>The big picture:</strong> Ocasio-Cortez is far from the only Democratic politician who wants voters to forget about their past cultural positions from the early 2020s.</p><ul><li>California Gov. Gavin Newsom said last year that "not one person ever in my office has ever used the word Latinx," though he repeatedly <a href="https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/1287878270864601088?s=20" target="_blank">did</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hK_ZcGlcdM&t=218s" target="_blank">so</a> in 2020.</li><li>Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, meanwhile, have walked back their past support for defunding the police.</li></ul><p><em>Axios' Marc Caputo contributed reporting.</em></p>
<p>Rep. <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/09/aoc-2028-president-schumer-senate" target="_blank">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> is trying to pull off a political feat for the ages: bury a chapter of left-wing politics that seemed like a good idea to many liberals at the time — but not so much anymore.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> The country's most prominent democratic socialist is essentially seeking a mulligan for candidates who embraced policies like defunding the police, saying candidates should be judged on their current platforms.</p><hr /><ul><li>But that will be a tough sell with moderate Democrats, let alone Republicans, in competitive races outside of blue bastions.</li></ul><p><strong>Driving the news: </strong>In an interview on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, AOC was asked about some of the positions democratic socialists took around 2020. They were, she said, a product of the time.</p><ul><li>"Woke 1 was crazy," she laughed, quoting a politician-friend. "And I think that what's important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now."</li><li>Though policy discussions around the start of the pandemic were "fruitful" given the dire straits the country was in, the "rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today," she added.</li></ul><p><strong>Flashback: </strong>One high-profile candidate already tried to wipe her 2020 record clean, to no avail: Kamala Harris in the last presidential election.</p><ul><li>During her short-lived 2020 presidential campaign, Harris endorsed taxpayer-funded, medically necessary gender transition surgeries for federal inmates; decriminalizing border crossings; and banning plastic straws, among other things.</li><li>Four years later, when she replaced President Biden on the ballot, Harris tried to reposition herself as a more traditional center-left candidate. But the Trump campaign made sure voters didn't forget the past. </li></ul><p><strong>The other side: </strong>The problem with dismissing 2020 leftist politics as crazy in hindsight is there were plenty of Democrats who warned in real time it was crazy.</p><ul><li>That list was topped by Joe Biden, who went on to win the primary and then the presidency on a center-left platform.</li></ul><p><strong>What they're saying: </strong>"AOC is a savvy politician. It's good she recognizes that positions she and others took on police in 2020 were bad substantively, and really bad politically," said Matt Bennett, a cofounder of the centrist Democratic group Third Way. "The problem is that some people running now are running on ideas that are even worse."</p><ul><li>He mentioned Wisconsin gubernatorial hopeful Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist who once called for eliminating the police as well as prisons, and even proposed doing away with Thanksgiving — all ideas she has since walked back.</li><li>Third Way announced last week a $15 million effort to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/us/politics/democratic-party-socialists-moderates.html" target="_blank">wage "war"</a> on the democratic socialist wing of the party.</li></ul><p><strong>The big picture: </strong>AOC's "Woke 1 was crazy" explanation looks like an attempt to redefine democratic socialism — distancing it from cultural and social positions that are hard to defend now and moving toward a populist economic agenda with broader appeal.</p><ul><li>Her own political future — whether it's a Senate run or a presidential campaign in 2028 — could be the ultimate test of that effort.</li></ul><p><strong>The bottom line: </strong>There's no statute of limitations on unpopular political stands.</p>
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) handed her party a problem it spent Sunday morning refusing to answer when she laughed off a slate of far-left policy positions as the excesses of “Woke 1.” Two of the biggest Sunday shows put Ocasio-Cortez’s remark to Democratic guests as a loyalty test, and both guests gave a near-identical non-answer. ...
<img alt="Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talking about Woke 1 being crazy" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" src="https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/AOC-1200x675.png" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;" />No one who lived through the past 10 years should allow Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to giggle away the hell called “woke” that she and Democrats inflicted on this country. It can’t possibly be that easy for them to move on from what they did just because they know it’s unpopular and it complicates things for their […]
<p>AOC’s remarks about past excesses have been ripped out of context. Progressives shouldn’t get roped into this sideshow</p><p>There is probably no word that has been more used and abused in the last decade than “woke”. It has been rendered completely meaningless, but it refuses to die. Indeed, it has now taken on new life: in the past week, there’s been a flurry of headlines about “Woke 1.0” or “Woke One”. If you haven’t seen the phrase pop up in your newsfeed yet, it will soon.</p><p>So what is this cursed phrase? There’s no official definition, but the term is largely being used to refer to the period between 2018 and 2021 when social justice language was at its peak in mainstream culture. Certain progressives, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have started to use “Woke 1” disparagingly, as a way to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/13/aoc-mamdani-defund-police-prisons">distance</a> themselves from that period and signal that they stand for a new form of left-leaning politics that is more palatable to centrist Democrats. “Woke 2”, I suppose.</p><p>Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/15/woke-1-aoc-progressives">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Recent comments by AOC have reignited a fiery debate about ‘wokeism’. But what are we really talking about?</p><p>Full confession: I am one of those who have come to think that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can essentially do no wrong. At times when I most fear for the future of our country, I watch her videos and am consoled and cheered by her clarity, her honesty, her intelligence, her simple common sense. So I was a little surprised to hear that on a recent interview on ABC This Week, she quoted a political ally as having remarked: “Woke 1.0 was crazy.”</p><p>What surprised me was not that she called for some moderation of the radical positions – the call to defund the police and the military, for example – that have, at times, been an aspect of progressive politics. But I was frankly a little unnerved to hear her use the word “woke”.</p><p>Francine Prose is a former president of the PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her latest book is Five Weeks in the Country</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/15/aoc-woke-1">Continue reading...</a>
<p>Protesting George Floyd’s murder wasn’t the “crazy” part. Centrist Dems selling out was.</p> <p>The post <a href="https://theintercept.com/2026/08/11/alexandria-ocasio-cortex-woke-one-crazy/">No, AOC: “Woke” Wasn’t “Crazy” the Way You Say It Was</a> appeared first on <a href="https://theintercept.com">The Intercept</a>.</p>