"Woke 1" and Democratic Party Deceit

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

19 Aug 2026

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The democrats’ backtracking on what they dismissively refer to as “wokeness” is the newest iteration of their political trickery as they yet again give the appearance of supporting what they actually oppose. They serve the interests of the oligarchs, and not those of the people.

“It’s good that there are now plenty of young people who like the idea of socialism. But if they don’t really know what socialism is, they also don’t know what capitalists will do to resist it.” - Glen Ford

In analyzing the recent controversy over what Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referred to as “Woke 1” it is necessary to follow her political career as an example of how democrats have joined in dismissing political demands made by Black people and political progressives as “wokeness” to be disregarded.

Known as AOC, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez is consistent in proving herself to be both unprincipled and shallow. She became a political star in 2018 when she defeated a long-serving incumbent in a New York City congressional primary. The excitement of a progressive victory didn’t last long when it was clear she didn’t really stand for anything except the fake image of being a leftist.

When Ocasio-Cortez went to Congress in 2019, she sided with the Democratic Party establishment in supporting Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. “So long as Leader Pelosi remains the most progressive candidate for Speaker, she can count on my support.” It is odd to see the word “progressive” connected in any way to the then Speaker, but that is what one can expect from even “leftist” democrats.

Ocasio-Cortez stayed on the same course in 2021 when progressive activists demanded that House members withhold votes supporting Pelosi as Speaker unless she committed to holding a vote on Medicare for All. The movement called for democrats to Force the Vote, and AOC was among those who were asked to show support for what millions of voting democrats wanted to see enacted, a universal health care system in this country

AOC did nothing of the sort. She voted for Pelosi, arguing that democrats didn’t have enough votes for Medicare for All. Of course, forcing through what the Pelosis of the world don’t want to do is how policies are enacted. Nancy Pelosi purposefully acted against what millions of people wanted when she sabotaged Medicare for All, with corporate media giving her cover when she needed it most.

The Ocasio-Cortez trajectory has remained the same, giving cover to the establishment with her fake credentials. Most recently and infamously, during the 2024 Democratic National Convention, she said of Kamala Harris, “She is working tirelessly to secure a cease-fire in Gaza and bringing the hostages home.” The claim was laughable at the time she made it, and now we know that, as a condition of receiving Biden’s endorsement, he demanded “no daylight” between the two of them. Intelligent observers knew right away that there was no “tireless” effort on Harris’ part, and AOC played the same role she always had.

Now the Democratic Party is, as they say, “shook” over recent electoral victories by democratic socialists. The decades-long rightward shift in politics seemed to go on unchanged with one very far-right party, the republicans, and the democrats, who are only slightly more to the left and, despite a now long-past history of providing some protection for the social safety net, can be described as center-right at best with the occasional opportunist like AOC for show.

Democratic socialists support policies that most people in this country want, including the universal, single-payer health care system that is known as Medicare for All. Of course, the Democratic Party’s leadership remains consistent in saying they oppose what their voters want. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is just the latest to loudly proclaim that he won’t do what voters want him to do should the democrats win back control of the House in the midterm elections. On the news program Meet the Press he was asked, “Do you personally support Medicare for All?” He responded, “No, I — as you indicated, I haven’t cosponsored the Medicare for All legislation that has been introduced over the last several years.” In other words, his politics are not those of the majority of the members of his party.

Members of the establishment have not changed their stripes, and they are committed to defeating the new democratic socialists and have help from corporate media in the beatdown. The “Woke 1” remark was elicited by an interview on the ABC News program This Week. Ocasio-Cortez didn’t just distance herself from DSA candidates in the interview. She also had to admit that she hadn’t endorsed anyone who the party leaders didn’t want.

KARL: I mean, but, like, in New York, you had the candidates that were endorsed by Mayor Mamdani.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Uh-huh.

KARL: Two of whom were challenging sitting members of Congress, powerful members of Congress, Democrats. And you decided to sit that one out. (Emphasis mine).

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Uh-huh.

KARL: Is that part of wanting to work with your colleagues that are in the House? I mean, what's the –

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Yeah, you know, I think we're all in different -- you know, politics is also a workplace.

KARL: Yeah.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: And we're all in different positions to that. I endorsed, for example, in New York, on the state level, I endorsed a slate of challengers to incumbents –

KARL: In the assembly?

OCASIO-CORTEZ: -- in the assembly --

If Ocasio-Cortez won’t endorse outsiders who are running for office, as she did, it is not surprising that she abandons what she claimed to want just a few years ago.

The term “woke” has an interesting history. First used by movement activists urging us to “Stay woke!” – that is to be vigilant –but was turned into a slur by the right wing, and now has come back to democrats who have joined with the right in denouncing their own people.

Let us remember that in 2020 millions of people took to the streets in protest after witnessing the police murder of George Floyd. They demanded significant changes in policing, including questioning the huge amounts of money that do not keep us safer but instead give police a license to kill. The New York Police Department (NYPD) budget is currently $11 billion, an amount that obviously could be reduced but which has instead grown over time. In the past six years, police have killed at least three people every day, more than 1,100 every year.

Ocasio-Cortez and others such as Zohran Mamdani, running from “woke” pledges to defund police, were right the first time, assuming they were ever serious in the first place. U.S. police budgets are higher than military spending for most of the world, the third highest, in fact. Neither the NYPD budget or any other was reduced even a little. The phony progressives are running from something that never even happened.

In 2020, mass protests forced the democrats to give an appearance of making common cause with an angry public. Nancy Pelosi, Congressional Black Caucus members, and other leaders donned kente cloth and knelt for 9 minutes in one of the strangest photo opportunities of all time. There were a lot of people kneeling and “taking a knee” as former football player Colin Kaepernick had done in protest of police killings. Kaepernick was loudly criticized, but at the opportune moment his gesture was taken on by politicians, CEOs, and others who were in on a gesture that became nothing more than an opportunistic grift meant to mollify the public.

Now that more serious democratic socialists are running for offices they have upended the Black members of the political class as well. Al Sharpton was somehow anointed as host of annual commemorations of the March on Washington and this year he will be joined by Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders. The “Woke 1” episode has not come without a political cost and AOC and her mentor Sanders know that they must make an appearance and partially denounce the recent denunciations. It is fitting that their fecklessness will be carried out with the assistance of Sharpton, who gives cover to the democratic wing of the duopoly if they show up at appointed times and publicly kiss his ring. They are all of a kind, living off of undeserved reputations and crawling out periodically to fool the people at the appointed moments.

In 2019, Glen Ford warned us, “Socialism has become the catch-all for anti-capitalism. Maybe it always was, in the minds of most people.” Now that democratic socialists are getting a hearing from the people we will find out who is really a socialist. We are also finding out how vicious the lords of capital are, as they fight tooth and nail against the mildest and most popular reformism and use the AOCs of the world to do it.

We see not just the democrats’ deceit, but also that of a political class that exists in the service of capitalism. They are the errand boys and girls to the oligarchs who occasionally need new faces or phrases to continue their deceptions. If the politics of 2020 were lies they still are in 2026. Let AOC and Bernie hang out with Al. It is our task to build something different and not fall prey to narratives meant to fool and weaken us.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.