New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently borrowed the phrase from New York City Councilman Chi Ossé to describe the politics of 2020. “Woke 1” gives Democrats a convenient way to put ideas such as defunding the police and abolishing prisons in the past. That was then. This is now. There’s a psychological term for this kind of separation: compartmentalization.

Consider how compartmentalization works in ordinary life. A married man can have a wife and children at home and a girlfriend on the side, keeping the two lives separate enough that he rarely confronts the contradiction. Compartmentalization allows us to separate conflicting parts of our lives rather than reconcile them.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ SHRUGS OFF PAST ‘DEFUND THE POLICE’ COMMENTS, JOKING ‘WOKE 1 WAS CRAZY’

That appears to be what Democrats are trying to do with 2020. There is the Democratic Party of 2020, when progressive ideas that once sat outside the mainstream suddenly gained influence. Then there is the Democratic Party of 2026, talking about affordability, economic populism and winning back voters who recoiled from the cultural politics of the past several years. “Woke 1” puts a neat dividing line between them. Changing your mind requires confronting what you once believed. Compartmentalization doesn’t.

Many political beliefs in 2020 became tests of character. They didn’t just say what you believed. They said what kind of person you were. If people you dismissed six years ago turned out to have a point, you have more to reconsider than a policy. Maybe you were too certain. Maybe you mistook disagreement for prejudice.

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Or you can call the whole thing Woke 1.

Except 2020 didn’t simply happen to the Democratic Party. Politicians embraced ideas, activists pushed them, and institutions decided which arguments deserved a hearing and which could be dismissed. People who challenged the prevailing views sometimes paid a price for it. Calling all of this “Woke 1” makes those choices sound like the product of a strange moment everyone has since outgrown.

AOC’S ATTEMPT TO DISMISS ‘WOKE 1’ AS ‘CRAZY’ DRAWS CRITICISM FROM LEFT-LEANING OUTLETS

If Democrats now reject positions they embraced or tolerated in 2020, voters can reasonably expect an explanation. The key question is whether Democrats changed their minds or discovered that voters had.

There is nothing shameful about changing your mind. Real change requires connecting what you believed then with what you believe now and acknowledging where you got it wrong. Without that reckoning, voters are left to wonder whether the beliefs changed or the incentives did.

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Democrats can compartmentalize 2020. Voters don’t have to.

A candidate may regard a six-year-old position as ancient history, but an opponent can revive it with an old interview, campaign questionnaire or social media post. “That was then” invites an obvious response: Yes, but that was you.

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Democrats aren’t unique in doing this. Every political party finds ways to distance itself from positions that become inconvenient. But 2020 poses a particular problem because so many political beliefs became tied to moral identity. Giving up a position can feel like admitting something about yourself, not just admitting that a policy was wrong.

There is a way out. Democrats could acknowledge that 2020 drew attention to genuine problems while also producing bad ideas. They could concede that some rhetoric went too far and that some people were treated unfairly for challenging the prevailing consensus. That doesn’t require abandoning concern about racism, police misconduct or inequality. It requires admitting that you can feel morally certain and still be wrong.

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The familiar Democratic argument is about whether the party should move left or toward the center. “Woke 1” raises a more interesting question: Before Democrats decide where they are going, can they explain what they now think about where they have been?

“Woke 1 was crazy” sounds like a confession. But it isn’t quite one. A confession names what you got wrong. Compartmentalization puts it somewhere you no longer have to look.

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Bream: 'Woke 1' looks TAME compared to 'Woke 2'

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Full confession: I am one of those who have come to think that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can essentially do no wrong. At times when I most fear for the future of our country, I watch her videos and am consoled and cheered by her clarity, her honesty, her intelligence, her simple common sense. So I was a little surprised to hear that on a recent interview on ABC This Week, she quoted a political ally as having remarked: “Woke 1.0 was crazy.”

What surprised me was not that she called for some moderation of the radical positions – the call to defund the police and the military, for example – that have, at times, been an aspect of progressive politics. But I was frankly a little unnerved to hear her use the word “woke”.

Francine Prose is a former president of PEN American Center and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her latest book is Five Weeks in the Country

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There is probably no word that has been more used and abused in the last decade than “woke”. It has been rendered completely meaningless, but it refuses to die. Indeed, it has now taken on new life: in the past week, there’s been a flurry of headlines about “Woke 1.0” or “Woke One”. If you haven’t seen the phrase pop up in your newsfeed yet, it will soon.

So what is this cursed phrase? There’s no official definition, but the term is largely being used to refer to the period between 2018 and 2021 when social justice language was at its peak in mainstream culture. Certain progressives, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have started to use “Woke 1” disparagingly, as a way to distance themselves from that period and signal that they stand for a new form of left-leaning politics that is more palatable to centrist Democrats. “Woke 2”, I suppose.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

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‘The Five’ on Dems’ ‘WOKE 1’ WALKBACK

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Actually, the game may not turn out to be that long at all. Many on the left are planning to double and triple-down on the “Woke” gameplan should the Democrats take back part or all of Congress in November and the White House in 2028.

Should you need a very recent reminder of how insidious and embedded DEI appointments combined with the “Woke” theology can be, I encourage you to watch the smug and condescending testimony given by National Museum of American History Director Anthea Hartig in response to a number of sane and pragmatic questions asked of her by Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas. While Gill put on a masterclass on exposing merit and nation-destroying “wokism,” I can assure you that the seemingly self-righteous and arrogant Hartig was mentally drumming her fingers while thinking: “We are just going to wait you and the Trump administration out and then reinstall “Woke” and DEI across the government and private sector spectrum.”

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One of the most dangerous programs Congressman Gill exposed was something called the “MASS Action Toolkit.” MASS standing for “Museums as Sites for Social Action.” A far-left, anti-Trump propaganda narrative created by museum professionals around 2017 to turn their workplaces into hubs of woke activism and “resistance.” The Smithsonian staff heavily promoted it as part of their DEI initiatives.

The obvious question then becomes how best to combat a war that we are losing. First, acknowledge we are losing. Next, see the strategy of the left for what it is. They are playing the “wait you out” game. Next, pick high profile battlefields subverted by the left and decisively win back that terrain.

And with that strategy in mind, I can think of no better place than the Smithsonian. The greater museum of the American people has been deeply infiltrated by the left. They have year-by-year, step-by-step turned it into a toxic cauldron for “Social Justice.”

WATCH: ‘SHOCKING’ BEN FRANKLIN SMEAR LEAVES SMITHSONIAN CHIEF WITH ‘NO REGRETS’

President Trump has the power to help reverse that. While he can’t directly appoint someone as the head of the Smithsonian, he can exert sustained pressure on the 17-Member Board of Regents to make it happen.

And he does need to make it happen as fast as humanly possible.

To millions in our nation and billions around the world the Smithsonian Institution is the face of “America.” It hosts over 20 million visitors per year while also “educating” over 20 million students per year. It is one of our nation’s most important megaphones and no one understands that better than the woke, Socialist and Marxist subversives who have infiltrated every building and hallway within the institution.

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They view the Smithsonian Institution as one of the greatest tools at their disposal to indoctrinate American citizens and global visitors against the values and traditions first articulated by our Founding Fathers and then outlined in our founding documents. I say that as one who authored a book titled: “The 56 – Liberty Lessons from those who risked all to sign The Declaration of Independence.” A book with the express purpose of protecting our Founding Fathers from the smears and cancellation by the left.

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But I also say that as one who – as with the fight against wokism and DEI – believes we are losing the battle to protect the names and reputations of men such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. Just as we are losing the battle to prevent the far-left from erasing and then “reinventing” our shared American history.

The Smithsonian Institution being “Ground Zero” for the vilification of our nation and those who strongly believe in its exceptionalism. It is for that reason that I believe we need a high-profile “America First” name to take over that institution and proclaim: “The cancellation of our Founding Fathers and the reinvention of our American history ends now. Today.”

President Trump must find a new leader for “The Nation’s Attic.” One who does recognize the courage, sacrifice and genius of our Founding Fathers and one who does deeply believe in our exceptionalism.

An American Patriot who will step into the Smithsonian Institution and on day one, begin to throw out the far-left garbage filling every nook and cranny of those buildings. He or she should do so as if our very future depends upon it. Because it does.

But he almost ended up in Hollywood by accident. He originally planned to play professional football and was signed by the Buffalo Bills in 1988, but a devastating knee injury ended his NFL career before the regular season.

Over the past decade, Cain has emerged as an outspoken conservative, and has not shied away from criticizing Hollywood and going against the grain in the entertainment business.

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“We’re the most giving, most compassionate nation in the history of mankind. And so, for me, it is truth, justice and the American Way, and I believe in the American Way. We’re not perfect, we are always striving for a more perfect union, but I love this country,” Cain told Fox News Digital.

“There’s no place like the United States of America. And so I’m 100% in on keeping this republic, as Benjamin Franklin said, ‘a republic if you can keep it.’ And we’ve had some ups and downs as of late. I’m very happy with the current administration, and I think we’re headed in the right direction.”

WATCH: DEAN CAIN: ‘HOLLYWOOD’S KIND OF DIED’

Cain argues that Hollywood is on the ropes and its woke chickens have come home to roost.

“Well, Hollywood’s kind of died … I mean, when I first started … there were three networks back then. My dad was a film director, so I knew everything about the business being around him. He said, ‘You can be an actor in television or you can be an actor in film’ … you had to pick one. That’s changed. 

“Then there was a time where you had to be a television actor to become a film actor. George Clooney. Johnny Depp. And then it was make a sex tape and you get a shot to make a movie. That was the Kardashian thing.”

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“But it’s changed in that it has become very woke in that sense. It’s hurt the box office. Hollywood’s dying. I left Hollywood three years ago. Nobody lives in California anymore. Everybody leaves. The last movie I shot in California, I wrote, produced, and directed, and I shot it in California. 

“I just shot a movie in Alabama, I just got back from a movie in Texas. You know, it’s everywhere else. Hollywood’s behind the curve. And the ability to make these smaller independent films has been wonderful.”

He continued, “And all these different platforms to put things on, it’s always changing, it’s always evolving. Right now, I like the direction it’s in, because I think we’re coming out of the woke epic, if you will. And we’ll look back at this time and go, that was stupid. I hope we do.”

Cain argues that it is Superman’s small-town American values that make him a meaningful character.

“At the time, he was supposed to be the best part of America. He was hope. He was raised by a small-town couple with small-town American values, and that’s why he was the most moral guy on the planet. 

“There’s other versions of Superman where he was raised in Soviet Russia, and became this horrible, awful thing. And there’s other versions that have him as sort of a Jesus figure. I like the idea of him being raised with small-town American values because I happen to think they’re the best.”

Cain put his money where his mouth is when it comes to Hollywood, recently relocating to the Silver State.

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“So the reason I left California was politics. It was the horrible regulations, the onerous taxes, it was insane. California … I could see it going off a cliff. Nevada, my parents had moved here two and a half years before I did, and they were loving it. They were having a great time, they weren’t paying state income taxes, prices for everything were so much lower. I was like, man, this seems great.”

He explained, “It’s the entertainment capital of the world, there’s sports, there are concerts, there is everything in the world here. I love it. And there’s a film industry here as well.”

Now that Cain has found a new home, his career may be pulling him in an entirely different direction.

“I got a chance to meet with Governor Lombardo. I think he’s done a fantastic job here. I have been asked to run for Senate here. I’ve been asked for governor here. If I think I can make Nevada better, perhaps I’ll do it, but I don’t want to be a politician, which is the exact thing that would make me or somebody like [Nevada third Congressional district nominee] Marty O’Donnell run for politics. 

“We were supposed to be citizen politicians, not career politicians, and so if I thought I could come in, do some good for this state of Nevada and for this country, I would do it and get out.”

He added, “If I feel like I can help people, I think that should be the metric for why people get into politics. Unfortunately, I think they get into politics for power, for money, and for prestige. I don’t need any of those things.”

But he almost ended up in Hollywood by accident. He originally planned to play professional football and was signed by the Buffalo Bills in 1988, but a devastating knee injury ended his NFL career before the regular season.

Over the past decade, Cain has emerged as an outspoken conservative, and has not shied away from criticizing Hollywood and going against the grain in the entertainment business.

DEAN CAIN DEFENDS JOINING ICE AFTER LEFTISTS ‘SHRIEKED’ TO DEFUND POLICE

“We’re the most giving, most compassionate nation in the history of mankind. And so, for me, it is truth, justice and the American Way, and I believe in the American Way. We’re not perfect, we are always striving for a more perfect union, but I love this country,” Cain told Fox News Digital.

“There’s no place like the United States of America. And so I’m 100% in on keeping this republic, as Benjamin Franklin said, ‘a republic if you can keep it.’ And we’ve had some ups and downs as of late. I’m very happy with the current administration, and I think we’re headed in the right direction.”

WATCH: DEAN CAIN: ‘HOLLYWOOD’S KIND OF DIED’

Cain argues that Hollywood is on the ropes and its woke chickens have come home to roost.

“Well, Hollywood’s kind of died … I mean, when I first started … there were three networks back then. My dad was a film director, so I knew everything about the business being around him. He said, ‘You can be an actor in television or you can be an actor in film’ … you had to pick one. That’s changed. 

“Then there was a time where you had to be a television actor to become a film actor. George Clooney. Johnny Depp. And then it was make a sex tape and you get a shot to make a movie. That was the Kardashian thing.”

LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

“But it’s changed in that it has become very woke in that sense. It’s hurt the box office. Hollywood’s dying. I left Hollywood three years ago. Nobody lives in California anymore. Everybody leaves. The last movie I shot in California, I wrote, produced, and directed, and I shot it in California. 

“I just shot a movie in Alabama, I just got back from a movie in Texas. You know, it’s everywhere else. Hollywood’s behind the curve. And the ability to make these smaller independent films has been wonderful.”

He continued, “And all these different platforms to put things on, it’s always changing, it’s always evolving. Right now, I like the direction it’s in, because I think we’re coming out of the woke epic, if you will. And we’ll look back at this time and go, that was stupid. I hope we do.”

Cain argues that it is Superman’s small-town American values that make him a meaningful character.

“At the time, he was supposed to be the best part of America. He was hope. He was raised by a small-town couple with small-town American values, and that’s why he was the most moral guy on the planet. 

“There’s other versions of Superman where he was raised in Soviet Russia, and became this horrible, awful thing. And there’s other versions that have him as sort of a Jesus figure. I like the idea of him being raised with small-town American values because I happen to think they’re the best.”

Cain put his money where his mouth is when it comes to Hollywood, recently relocating to the Silver State.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER

“So the reason I left California was politics. It was the horrible regulations, the onerous taxes, it was insane. California … I could see it going off a cliff. Nevada, my parents had moved here two and a half years before I did, and they were loving it. They were having a great time, they weren’t paying state income taxes, prices for everything were so much lower. I was like, man, this seems great.”

He explained, “It’s the entertainment capital of the world, there’s sports, there are concerts, there is everything in the world here. I love it. And there’s a film industry here as well.”

Now that Cain has found a new home, his career may be pulling him in an entirely different direction.

“I got a chance to meet with Governor Lombardo. I think he’s done a fantastic job here. I have been asked to run for Senate here. I’ve been asked for governor here. If I think I can make Nevada better, perhaps I’ll do it, but I don’t want to be a politician, which is the exact thing that would make me or somebody like [Nevada third Congressional district nominee] Marty O’Donnell run for politics. 

“We were supposed to be citizen politicians, not career politicians, and so if I thought I could come in, do some good for this state of Nevada and for this country, I would do it and get out.”

He added, “If I feel like I can help people, I think that should be the metric for why people get into politics. Unfortunately, I think they get into politics for power, for money, and for prestige. I don’t need any of those things.”