AOC recently described the earlier Woke 1 era of progressive politics as crazy, distancing herself from positions she once held, such as defunding the police, decarceration, using the term Latinx, and decriminalizing border crossings. When other Democrats, including Ro Khanna and Wes Moore, were asked whether they agreed with her characterization, they gave evasive or noncommittal answers rather than directly addressing the label.
The Guardian's columnists engage critically but sympathetically, with one writer (Prose) expressing personal admiration for AOC while being 'unnerved' she adopted the word 'woke,' and another (Mahdawi) arguing the 'Woke 1' framing is a manufactured 'sideshow' that strips AOC's comments of context and distracts from bigger problems.
Axios frames the story as a strategic political analysis, cataloguing AOC's past controversial statements (defund police, decarceration, Latinx, decriminalizing border crossings) as 'baggage' that complicates a 2028 presidential run, and situates her alongside other Democrats (Newsom, Mamdani, El-Sayed) quietly walking back similar positions.
The Daily Wire frames the story as exposing Democratic dysfunction, emphasizing that other Democrats (Khanna, Moore) were unable or unwilling to answer whether they agreed 'Woke 1' was crazy, using their evasive answers and pivots (e.g., to gas prices) as evidence the party cannot define or reckon with its own past excesses.