‘Woke One Was Crazy’: Ocasio-Cortez Writes Off Progressive Rage That Got Her Elected

“Woke One was crazy.” That’s the judgment rendered by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the left-leaning movement that emerged during President Trump’s first term and the Covid pandemic, a period that closely aligns with her own political ascent.The credit for the description goes to a Generation Z’er and New York City councilmember, Chi Ajani Ossé, to whom Ms. Ocasio-Cortez shouted out on Sunday during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” She borrowed Mr. Ossé’s phrase to explain some of the controversial statements credited to a fellow Democratic Socialist, Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has decided not to endorse Ms. Hong, whose record of expressing disdain for all things American, including Thanksgiving, and whose former support of defunding the police and closing prisons, are central planks of the Democratic Socialist agenda. Asked why she is not backing the like-minded progressive, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said Ms. Hong’s race is local while she is focused on Democrats winning back Congress.Ms. Ocasio-Cortez then veered into another take on Ms. Hong’s more prickly comments — several of which she has walked back — describing them as uttered in an era when those kinds of remarks were acceptable, even encouraged. “Especially during Covid, there was a huge opening of the Overton window,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said, referencing the term for moments in political discourse when radical speech becomes mainstream.“We were shut down. There was some of the highest unemployment rates that we have seen because of those shutdowns. And I think that the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place.” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez explained. She added that many of the discussions at the time were “quite fruitful.” “During lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today. And I’m grateful that these candidates have the opportunity to present who they are to their electorate and what they’re campaigning on in this moment,” she said.The Overton window has seemingly shifted in stride with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s career. At the time of her political arrival, the New York congresswoman was a 28-year-old bartender with a degree from Boston University who had served as a community organizer in Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign. Her 2018 congressional victory — running on the Democratic Socialist platform — over her competitor, longtime Congressman Joseph Crowley, was seen as the biggest upset of the year, even a sign of things to come in some circles. Now, having been elected — and re-elected three times since — and with her 2026 re-election bid tied up before any votes are cast, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is being viewed closely as a potential king- and queenmaker and even a potential 2028 presidential contender. A 2028 victory would make her the youngest and first female president in history. With the future in mind, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, 36, has decided to freeze her eggs, as she shared on social media last week. Building on her mounting experience in Washington, she is also sounding the mantle of responsibility that comes with the seniority of a soon-to-be five-term lawmaker. Nearly a decade at Washington changes anybody, and it has lent gravitas to Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. But while Washington, her growing seniority, or today’s times may have changed her rhetoric, she insists it has not changed her beliefs. Many of her positions have retained their resonance, if not their tone, as her supporters and detractors point out.“Sex-change operations for children? Biological men in women’s sports? Race-based discrimination in hiring and admissions? Decriminalizing theft? Declining to prosecute repeat offenders? Which part of ‘Woke 1’ do they now think was crazy?” the vice president for external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, Jesse Arm, asked rhetorically on X of those leaning in Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s political direction. “They haven’t renounced any of it. And they don’t intend to.”“AOC’s strategy is to laugh away Woke 1 as ‘crazyyyy’ and pretend it was some kind of mass hysteria,” said a former Democratic campaign operative, Evan Barker, who wrote a book about her experience. “But it ruined careers, pushed an entire cohort of people out of Democratic politics, and is—according to the Dem staffers messaging me after reading my book—still happening inside the party now. If Francesca Hong is Woke 1, wait until you see a better organized and serious Woke 2. The ‘vibe shift’ is a mirage.”A former White House press office chief of staff during the Biden administration, Yemisi Egbewole, also advised against trying “to giggle away ‘Woke 1 was crazy’ as if it was all just harmless rhetoric.”“That whole period became a kind of mass ideological conformity where everyone (people, institutions and politicians) adopted ideas because everyone else was adopting them. Also I wasted an unbelievable amount of time, energy and brain space explaining to progressives why Black neighborhoods still needed law enforcement,” she posted.While Ms. Ocasio-Cortez says the political reckoning is only about delivery, not message, the congresswoman still excuses the terse language of controversial water carriers, including socialist commentator Hasan Piker, who is giving the yips to moderate Democratic leaders and strategists. Asked if Mr. Piker should have a role in the newly emerging progressive moment, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said he represents a voice that political consultants advised Democrats to hearken to attract young men back into the party. “Many of the same consultants that are wringing their hands today were the same ones talking about how we need to go on Joe Rogan, and we need to be not so, you know, willing to engage in cancel culture,” she said, citing Mr. Piker’s popularity as part of a “generational tidal wave, a tsunami.” “Young people are engaging in mediums and conversations that we have a responsibility to attend to and be responsive to,” she added.As she attempts to straddle the line between Democrat and Democratic Socialist, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has lost some of her luster among the national Democratic Socialists of America. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said she does not support DSA policy positions such as defunding the Department of Defense, closing oversea military bases, abolishing the police and prison system, replacing the Supreme Court, and abolishing the Senate, among others. The split pulls back the curtain separating the practical insider from the insurgent philosophy. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez retains her membership with the New York City Democratic Socialists of America chapter. While Ms. Ocasio-Cortez will soon reach the ripe old age of 37, she does not represent all Millennials, though she contends those smacked by the reality of aging, settling down, buying homes, starting families, and building the remnants of the American dream are going to be decisive at the polls.“Millennials are not punk kids anymore. We’re grown adults with mortgages and kids,” she said. “And there is anger at being ignored, having our economic futures mortgaged by the generations that came before us and we’re taking the reins.”For young progressive voters like Mr. Ossé, 28, the child of Haitian immigrants who now represents the Brooklyn neighborhood of Beford-Stuyvesant and some of northern Crown Heights, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez has reached the level of maturity to represent the future.“Woke 1 WAS crazyyyy, Madame President,” Mr. Ossé responded on X.

‘Woke One Was Crazy’: Ocasio-Cortez Writes Off Progressive Rage That Got Her Elected

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