Nearly a decade after the height of the ‘woke’ political wave, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is trying to laugh it off — but not everyone is letting her. In a weekend interview on ABC, the New York congresswoman was asked about the long trail of controversial public statements made by Francesca Hong, the now-former Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Wisconsin. Hong, who once owned a ramen restaurant, drew scrutiny for a 2020 magazine piece lamenting the food service industry’s ‘deep roots in white supremacy.’
‘She’s moved away from it,’ Ocasio-Cortez said flatly, before chuckling and adding, ‘And I have a local city councilman that has this saying: “Woke 1 was crazy.”’
The congresswoman went on to say that ‘the discussions that were had in [2020] were quite fruitful,’ but conceded that ‘rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.’
Critics — including the conservative outlet The Federalist, which first reported the remarks — are not buying the casual dismissal. The Federalist’s piece argues that no one who lived through the past decade should allow Ocasio-Cortez to ‘giggle away’ the damage of the ‘woke’ era, which they say included a 30 percent spike in the U.S. murder rate and sharp increases in other crimes like robbery, vandalism, and theft. The outlet contends that Democrats who now distance themselves from defund-the-police rhetoric and other once-celebrated positions owe voters a detailed accounting of what they actually believe today.
‘If Ocasio-Cortez and presumably other Democrats are ready to marginalize and move on from the policy positions and views they branded themselves with for years, they can’t be let off the hook with a wink and smile,’ The Federalist wrote. ‘They should be required to account for specific policies they no longer support.’
The piece goes on to list a series of pointed questions Democrats should face: Do they still believe in abolishing ICE? Do they still support defunding the police, and if not, how much funding would they restore? Do they still back reparations or race-based distribution of taxpayer money? Do they believe ‘racial equity’ justifies declining to prosecute ‘nonviolent’ crime like drug dealing and looting? Do they continue to support elective, irreversible opposite-sex hormones for minors, and mastectomies on healthy teenage girls? What about vaccine mandates? Allowing men in women’s locker rooms and public restrooms? Can they name a single illegal alien they would deport? How many migrants would they allow across the southern border?
‘Democrats can call everything they did “crazy,” and yet there is no evidence they would change any of it,’ the outlet concluded.
The exchange highlights a broader political tension as the 2028 presidential race approaches. Ocasio-Cortez, widely seen as a potential contender, and other Democrats who rode the wave of 2020’s social justice movements are now navigating a political landscape where those positions have become deeply unpopular. The Federalist’s reporting underscores the difficulty of moving on from a record that, in their view, had real and measurable consequences for American communities.
Neither Ocasio-Cortez’s office nor representatives for Hong have yet issued a statement responding to the criticism. The ABC interview itself has not been made fully public, but the excerpts reported by The Federalist have already ignited debate on social media, with supporters of the congresswoman arguing that her comments reflect a pragmatic evolution, while detractors see an admission of past failures without a genuine apology or policy course correction.
The ‘woke’ era, as it has been called, was defined by a wave of progressive activism following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, leading to widespread calls to defund police departments, abolish ICE, and implement racial equity programs across various institutions. Critics have since pointed to rising crime rates in major cities, controversial school curricula, and debates over gender and immigration policies as evidence of the movement’s excesses.
For now, the question remains whether Democrats will be pressed to answer for their past positions — or whether a chuckle and a slogan like ‘Woke 1 was crazy’ will be enough to draw a line under a turbulent period in American politics.
Source: thefederalist.com — https://thefederalist.com/2026/08/14/every-democrat-should-be-asked-what-about-woke-1-was-crazy/