Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is trying to rewrite history. In a recent remark, she dismissed the so-called “Woke 1” era as “crazy,” echoing a phrase from New York City Councilman Chi Ossé. But this breezy dismissal is a disservice to the record. Ocasio-Cortez was not a passive observer of that period—she was one of its most prominent champions, using her platform to push far-left cultural positions that proved electorally toxic.
At a weekend event, Ocasio-Cortez laughed off her previous enthusiasm for these positions, referencing Ossé’s tweet that “Woke 1 was crazy.” The councilman had used the line to explain his past statement that a “white man should not be the next speaker” of the City Council. This casual approach treats the “Woke 1” era as if it were a natural disaster—something that happened to them, rather than something they actively helped create.
A Record of Enforcement
Ocasio-Cortez’s own history contradicts her current ambivalence. In 2019, she posted a video criticizing New Yorkers who preferred cauliflower over yuca in community gardens, framing it as complicity in colonization. Never mind that neither crop is indigenous to New York. In 2022, she defended the term “Latinx” against fellow Democrats who wanted to abandon it, despite polls showing that large majorities of Hispanic voters disliked the term and were less likely to vote for Democrats who used it.
More recently, just five months ago, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that cowboy culture originated with “African enslaved peoples,” dismissing Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s assertion that it came from Spain. That clip, which highlighted her dubious grasp of history, is a stark reminder of her willingness to embrace fringe narratives.
The Broader Context
“Wokeness” has always been a slippery term. In earlier decades, it was called “political correctness,” focusing on speech policing, safe spaces, and cancel culture. Over time, it expanded to include far-left policy positions like defunding the police, abolishing borders, and restructuring the Senate, Supreme Court, and Electoral College. The killing of George Floyd in 2020 supercharged these excesses, turning legitimate concerns about policing into a pretext for ideological enforcement and grifting.
Now that the political pendulum has swung back, many Democrats are distancing themselves from these positions, citing them as reasons for their electoral losses. But as Ocasio-Cortez considers a potential White House bid, her dismissive “Woke 1 was crazy” line feels less like genuine reflection and more like a calculated rebrand. It’s a weak choice that she would likely abandon if the winds shifted again.
The irony is that Ocasio-Cortez had every opportunity to push back against the most absurd manifestations of wokeness. Instead, she amplified them. Her current shrug is not accountability—it’s a convenient erasure of her own role in promoting the very ideas she now calls crazy.
As the 2028 Democratic field takes shape, voters should be wary of politicians who treat their past positions as a joke. Ocasio-Cortez’s record shows she was not a bystander to the madness—she was one of its most visible enforcers.
