{"id":14388,"date":"2026-08-11T16:03:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=14388"},"modified":"2026-08-11T16:03:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T13:03:52","slug":"centrists-hold-progressives-accountable-for-woke-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/centrists-hold-progressives-accountable-for-woke-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Centrists Hold Progressives Accountable for Woke Records"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to Hailey Bullis writing in <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>, leading progressive figures are now trying to avoid accountability for stances that dominated during the COVID-19 pandemic and Black Lives Matter unrest era. <strong>Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/strong> of New York, reportedly being floated as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, recently echoed a phrase from a New York City councilman describing that period as &#8220;Woke 1 was crazy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The comments came during an appearance on ABC News&#8217;s This Week, where Ocasio-Cortez defended Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate <strong>Francesca Hong<\/strong>, who previously advocated for abolishing prisons and canceling Thanksgiving. Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, now claims she has &#8220;evolved&#8221; from those positions ahead of Wisconsin&#8217;s Tuesday primary elections.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-14388 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-medium'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26220621016193-300x200.webp\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-14385\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26220621016193-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26220621016193-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP26220621016193.webp 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-14385'>\n\t\t\t\tPhoto: washingtonexaminer.com\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP24281831370394-300x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-14386\" srcset=\"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP24281831370394-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP24281831370394-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP24281831370394.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-14386'>\n\t\t\t\tPhoto: washingtonexaminer.com\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Hong attempted to explain away her previous statements as reactions to pandemic stress. <em>I had some hot takes, some bad takes on Twitter<\/em>, she said over the weekend, attributing them to the pressures of running a restaurant during COVID while being a student.<\/p>\n<p>Ocasio-Cortez suggested that candidates should be judged on their current positions rather than past statements, using the &#8220;Woke 1&#8221; framework to categorize the previous era of progressive activism as an aberration.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/strong> of Vermont, the progressive movement&#8217;s standard-bearer, similarly distanced himself from the &#8220;defund the police&#8221; movement last week, claiming that &#8220;no serious person&#8221; he knows running for office supports the policy\u2014despite it being a major rallying cry among progressives in 2020.<\/p>\n<h2>Former Democrats Reject the Revisionism<\/h2>\n<p>The attempt to dismiss these positions as merely a phase has provoked strong reactions from centrist Democrats and former party operatives. <strong>Evan Barker<\/strong>, a former Democratic campaign operative who voted for President Donald Trump in 2024, posted on X that Ocasio-Cortez&#8217;s strategy treats the period as &#8220;some kind of mass hysteria&#8221; that can simply be laughed away.<\/p>\n<p>Barker warned that the movement &#8220;ruined careers, pushed an entire cohort of people out of Democratic politics,&#8221; and remains active within the party. He cautioned that the apparent &#8220;vibe shift&#8221; is merely &#8220;a mirage&#8221; and predicted a more organized &#8220;Woke 2&#8221; could emerge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yemisi Egbewole<\/strong>, a former Democratic staffer and Biden administration alumna, rejected the notion that the party can simply &#8220;giggle away &#8216;Woke 1 was crazy&#8217; as if it was all just harmless rhetoric.&#8221; She pointed out that real people&#8217;s lives were affected and noted the extensive time she spent trying to explain to progressives why Black neighborhoods still needed law enforcement.<\/p>\n<h2>Progressive Candidates Navigate Past Associations<\/h2>\n<p>The strategy shift comes just 85 days before November midterm elections, where numerous socialist and progressive candidates will appear on ballots nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>In Michigan, Democratic Senate nominee <strong>Abdul el Sayed<\/strong> distanced himself from comments made by far-left streamer <strong>Hasan Piker<\/strong>, who campaigned with el Sayed during Michigan&#8217;s primary. Piker previously stated that &#8220;America deserved 9\/11.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>El Sayed called the comment &#8220;dumb&#8221; and suggested Piker himself would acknowledge it as such, adding that Piker had disavowed it. He complained about what he characterized as &#8220;gotcha politics&#8221; and &#8220;cancel culture,&#8221; insisting he wants to be held accountable only for his own words and actions.<\/p>\n<p>Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan <strong>Rahm Emanuel<\/strong>, considered a possible 2028 contender, has also weighed in on the progressive movement&#8217;s attempted repositioning, according to the analysis.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><em>With information from <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Washington Examiner<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Progressive Democrats including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are trying to distance themselves from radical positions like defunding police that they championed during the pandemic and BLM era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":14387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[789,10946,790,10775,2788,209,4917],"nfg_topic":[137],"class_list":["post-14388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-alexandria-ocasio-cortez","tag-defund-police","tag-democratic-party","tag-francesca-hong","tag-progressive-politics","tag-united-states","tag-wisconsin","nfg_topic-culture-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14388"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14389,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14388\/revisions\/14389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14388"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=14388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}