{"id":2643021,"date":"2026-08-11T08:27:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/centrist-democrats-wont-let-progressives-cast-aside-left-wing-stances\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T08:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T12:29:16","slug":"centrist-democrats-wont-let-progressives-cast-aside-left-wing-stances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/centrist-democrats-wont-let-progressives-cast-aside-left-wing-stances\/","title":{"rendered":"Centrist Democrats won&#8217;t let progressives cast aside left-wing stances"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcentrist-democrats-wont-let-progressives-cast-aside-left-wing-stances%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2643021&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Progressives are increasingly distancing themselves from their previous left-wing positions, which has met resistance from former party members and centrist Democrats demanding accountability. prominent figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders are downplaying their past radical stances, suggesting such views were temporary phases. This shift is criticized by centrist Democrats and former insiders, who argue that these positions had real impacts and should not be dismissed as mere &#8220;hot takes.&#8221; The strategic rebranding occurs ahead of the November midterm elections, with some progressive candidates distancing themselves from controversial comments, such as those made by left-wing personalities like Hasan Piker.Experts warn that focusing on divisive social issues may harm Democratic prospects, with commentators emphasizing that these ideological shifts and controversies could influence voter perception and attrition within the party.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<article class=\"fn-body\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Progressives\u2019 attempts to distance themselves from the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/socialism\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/socialism\">left-wing positions<\/a> they once championed are meeting resistance from former members of the party and centrist <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/democrats\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/democrats\">Democrats<\/a>, who demand they take accountability for their stances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A string of comments from progressive darlings signals the growing bloc is trying to avoid accountability for the out-of-the-mainstream stances they held years ago, with Rep. <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/alexandria-ocasio-cortez\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"282\">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> (D-NY), a floated 2028 presidential contender, repeating a line from a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/new-york-city\/\" data-type=\"post_tag\" data-id=\"286\">New York City<\/a> councilman that \u201cWoke 1 was crazy,\u201d a phrase that refers to the era of left-wing politics that dominated the COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter unrest.<\/p>\n<section class=\"explore-more-section\" id=\"wex-recommended-widget\">\n<div class=\"magazine-container single\">\n<h1 class=\"magazine-title mt-2\">Recommended Stories<\/h1>\n<p>             <i class=\"fa-solid fa-play icon\"><\/i>         <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-grid\">\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4681641\/trump-endorsed-darline-nordone-graham-unpredictable-south-carolina-primary\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Trump-backed Darline Graham Nordone faces test in unpredictable South Carolina primary<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/4668631\/key-minnesota-primary-races-to-watch\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Here are the key Minnesota primary races to watch<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<div class=\"explore-card\">                         <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4681932\/progressives-skirt-past-woke-pasts-centrists-wont-let-them\/?itm_source=parsely-api\">                             <\/p>\n<div class=\"explore-thumb-wrap\">                                                                                                                                  <\/div>\n<h3>Progressives want to skirt past their \u2018woke\u2019 pasts. Centrists won\u2019t let them<\/h3>\n<p>                         <\/a>                     <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ocasio-Cortez was responding to a question about Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Rep. Francesca Hong\u2019s prior support for abolishing prisons and canceling Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-1\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-15\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy understanding is that Francesca Hong has made clear her present stances to her electorate,\u201d she said on ABC News\u2019s <em>This Week<\/em>, before going on to say Hong has moved away from those positions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hong, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America,\u00a0has been under increased scrutiny for her stances ahead of Wisconsin\u2019s Tuesday primary elections, but said over the weekend that she\u2019s \u201cevolved\u201d from some of her previous opinions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI had some hot takes, some bad takes on Twitter, but when you\u2019re a business owner running a restaurant during COVID, trying to pay bills as a student, you\u2019re putting feelings out there into the world,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve evolved, I\u2019ve learned. I think it\u2019s more dishonest not to learn.\u201d<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/iriesentner\/status\/2086259875974189257\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-2\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-16\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-2\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ocasio-Cortez continued, \u201cI have a local city councilman who has this saying, \u2018Woke 1 was crazy,\u2019 and I think that what\u2019s important is that we have to assess what a candidate is saying now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The phrase allowed Ocasio-Cortez to avoid answering for policy positions considered by most people to be extreme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The New York Democrat is not alone in her attempt to wave away previously held stances of the left-wing movement, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the progressive movement\u2019s standard-bearer, saying last week that \u201cno serious person\u201d he knows who is running for office believes in defunding the police, a left-wing stance that gained national attention in 2020.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-3\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-17\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-3\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the insinuation that the progressive stances were just a phase isn\u2019t sitting well with centrist Democrats, who see it as more than just \u201chot takes\u201d made on social media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Evan Barker, a former Democratic campaign operative who voted for President Donald Trump in 2024, posted on X that Ocasio-Cortez\u2019s strategy is to \u201claugh away Woke 1 as \u2018crazyyyy\u2019\u201d and that it was \u201csome kind of mass hysteria.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Barker asserted that the movement \u201cruined careers, pushed an entire cohort of people out of Democratic politics,\u201d and is still happening within the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-4\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-25\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-4\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf Francesca Hong is Woke 1, wait until you see a better organized and serious Woke 2,\u201d Barker wrote. \u201cThe \u2018vibe shift\u2019 is a mirage.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Yemisi Egbewole, a former Democratic staffer and alum of former President Joe Biden\u2019s administration, wrote that she doesn\u2019t think the party gets to \u201cgiggle away \u2018Woke 1 was crazy\u2019 as if it was all just harmless rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cReal people\u2019s lives were affected by that era,\u201d Egbewole wrote.\u00a0\u201cAlso I wasted an unbelievable amount of time, energy and brain space explaining to progressives why Black neighborhoods still needed law enforcement. But that\u2019s just my own stubbornness.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wex-inarticle-ad wex-inarticle-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\">\n<div class=\"wex-ad-wrap wex-ad-art-dsk-inart-5\" style=\"min-height:90px\"><span class=\"wex-ad-label\" hidden>Advertisement<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-3182201-26\" data-wex-ad=\"art-dsk-inart-5\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The apparent strategy shift from top progressives comes just 85 days before the November midterm elections, where a growing number of socialist and progressive candidates will be on the ballot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In Michigan, Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el Sayed <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4680806\/abdul-el-sayed-distances-hasan-piker-controversy-michigan-senate-race\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4680806\/abdul-el-sayed-distances-hasan-piker-controversy-michigan-senate-race\/\">distanced himself from comments<\/a> by far-left streamer Hasan Piker, who has campaigned with el Sayed during Michigan\u2019s primary, in which Piker said, \u201cAmerica deserved 9\/11.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">El Sayed said the comment was \u201cdumb\u201d and that he thinks \u201cHasan\u00a0himself would say that was a dumb statement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHe disavowed it,\u201d el Sayed said. \u201cSo yes, America didn\u2019t deserve 9\/11, but you know, to sit here and play gotcha politics with a dumb thing somebody said out of context that they disavowed themselves \u2014 to say, \u2018Oh well, what does that mean about what you think?\u2019 I want to be held accountable for what I say and what I do, rather than this idea that we\u2019re so stuck in cancel culture that all of us agreed was a bad idea back in 2020, but we seem to want to bring back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4680373\/el-sayed-call-obama-michigan-senate-campaign\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/campaigns\/congressional\/4680373\/el-sayed-call-obama-michigan-senate-campaign\/\">EL SAYED HAILS \u2018INSPIRING\u2019 PHONE CALL WITH OBAMA, HOPES FORMER PRESIDENT HITS CAMPAIGN TRAIL<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, a possible 2028 contender, said in a video posted on social media that \u201cDemocrats aren\u2019t immune from blame\u201d over why voters are cynical about politics in Washington, pointing to Hong\u2019s candidacy and Piker\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Emanuel <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/the-bernie-bros-could-spoil-democrats-midterms-0e6e6289\">warned<\/a> in a <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> op-ed last month that Democrats\u2019 lead in the November election has \u201cnarrowed amid recent attention to DSA-led primaries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn November, a continued focus on defunding, decriminalizing and decolonizing will highlight cultural issues that alienate many Democrats, not to mention a huge swath of independents (who make up a record-high 45 percent of the electorate) and disenchanted Republicans,\u201d Emanuel wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Progressives face pushback over past left-wing stances<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2912,"featured_media":2643022,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/032426_WEX_OCASIO_CORTEZ-27.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[20608,3685,5129,5894,11763],"class_list":["post-2643021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-centrist","tag-democrats","tag-left-wing","tag-politics","tag-progressives"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/032426_WEX_OCASIO_CORTEZ-27.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2643021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2643024,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643021\/revisions\/2643024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2643022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2643021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2643021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2643021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}