@vox: Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) flashed her political dexterity on ABC’s This Week when she was asked about the policies of Peak Woke — call it Woke 1, that stretch around the 2020 pandemic when the American liberal machine seemed to be at its political and cultural height. “I have a local city councilman who has this saying,” the Bronx congresswoman said. “Woke 1 was crazy.” She was quoting a tweet from Chi Ossé, a New York City Council member from Brooklyn, but the point underneath it was the real tell. The Democrats’ emerging left — fresh off primary victories in New York, Colorado, and now Michigan — has developed a playbook for handling any unpopular stance, or tweet, from the early 2020s, whether it’s pandemic masking, defunding the police, or the broader vocabulary of that summer. The new plan: Brush it off. Then refocus on the present, and on the policies that will actually make people’s lives better. Read more of Astead Herndon’s newsletter — The Midterms, Actually — at the link in our bio. 📸: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images #politicstiktok #AOC #BernieSanders #Progressives #Woke

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Tuesday 11 August 2026 16:49:52 GMT