Lefties like AOC need to answer some questions before we move on from ‘Woke 1’

Remember the early 2020s when cancel culture ran rampant, defunding police was a standard position on the left and we were all supposed to fall in line with their bad ideas, or else?

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wants us to pretend it all went away.

AOC took to “This Week with Jonathan Karl” on ABC to defend Francesca Hong, the latest Democratic Socialist star, running for governor of Wisconsin.

In 2020, Hong said Thanksgiving should be canceled, claiming it’s “a time that’s incredibly painful for people” in her community.

Now that she wants to get elected, Hong suddenly called Thanksgiving her “favorite holiday.”

AOC argued that Hong has “moved away” from some of her more controversial positions then giggled that she agreed with NYC Councilman Chi Ossé, who had said, “Woke 1 was crazyyyy.”

Tee-hee, woke 1, you guys! We were so goofy and silly, what with destroying the lives of anyone who mildly disagreed with us.

Forget about all the crazy things we said! Focus on the cleaned up versions of those positions that we’re spouting now!

But before we move on, perhaps a few follow-up questions:

What era of “woke” are we in now? 2? 5? Which parts in particular does the left regret?

Is it stuff like a New York Times columnist saying the cartoon character Pepé Le Pew “normalized rape culture” or when we finally solved racism by getting rid of Aunt Jemima on the pancake syrup?

Was it the 57 genders, the biological boys dominating in girls’ sports and the girls having to shut up about it, the astronomical number of teens who suddenly declared themselves “non-binary” and sometimes participated in life-altering and dangerous medical interventions in a futile attempt to change their gender?

Does no one want to get rid of police departments or prisons anymore?

The left only stopped some of this nonsense because the American people made them stop, largely by electing President Donald Trump for a second term.

Trump’s most powerful ad noted that Kamala Harris, now somehow a “moderate” in a Democratic Party being taken over by communists, wanted free sex changes for illegal immigrant criminals. It seemed so outlandish that it couldn’t be true.

It was true.

The left has realized how absurd their ideas sound to everyday Americans, and they’re trying to massage what they really believe.

As AOC admitted, “I think that when we talk about crime today, it’s fundamentally different than the way that we talked about crime, in bringing crime down, right? I think that during lockdown, of course, rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”

In June 2020, when NYC proposed cutting NYPD’s budget by $1.5 billion, AOC didn’t think that went far enough. “Defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math.”

A month later she said “Crime is a symptom of a diseased society that neglects its most marginalized people, and we do not solve that problem with police.”

But it wasn’t just a symptom of the lockdowns, as she portrays it today. Before COVID, back in 2019, AOC tweeted that “we need to have a real conversation about decarceration & prison abolition in this country.”

She was for getting rid of police departments and prisons. Are we supposed to just forget what she said?

And, more importantly, are we suppose to really believe she doesn’t think that anymore — or she’s just savvy enough to say otherwise?

There is no Woke 2. It’s exactly the same as Woke 1, just better focus-grouped.

Karol Markowicz is the host of the “Karol Markowicz Show” and “Normally” podcasts.