The New Pledge of Allegiance

Last month, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez infamously stated "I have a local city councilman that has this saying 'Woke 1 was crazy.' I think that during this time, especially during COVID... the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place."

Critics noted that the New York congresswoman herself was part of the problem. Overlooked was that her reference to "especially during COVID" was disingenuous. Covid-19 had little to do with woke statements or perspective. It was much more the black lives matter movement, spearheaded by the ethically questionable Black Lives Matter organization.

This is significant because there is an idea- vocalized by Ocasio-Cortez- that "woke is dead". This is a convenient notion, encouraging controversial opinions to be shielded from the accusation that it is "woke". Not taken in is the co-author of Regime Change because as Breitbart noted

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” New York Times White House Reporter and author Jonathan Swan said that “there’s actually an effort to get away from what AOC has called woke one. But the new litmus test is Gaza and genocide. That’s replaced a lot of these old litmus tests.” And “It’s completely oriented itself around Israel.”

Swan said, “The interesting thing is that there were all these other litmus tests that existed in 2020, and you see politicians like Pete Buttigieg took out — he had his pronouns on his social media account. He got rid of them. So, there’s actually an effort to get away from what AOC has called woke one. But the new litmus test is Gaza and genocide. That’s replaced a lot of these old litmus tests.”

Later, Swan said that he “can’t really make sense of where the line is anymore or what gets you cancelled…but the one issue, as you said before, seems to be Gaza. That seems to be the one thing where they’ve oriented themselves around a litmus test. … Like, you don’t hear candidates say, mask mandates and defund the police, they’re actually running away from all of that stuff. It’s completely oriented itself around Israel.”

Unlike the black lives matter movement, which strongly implied that police practice widespread brutality against black people and only black people, not every Democrat has fallen in line with the "Israel=genocide" myth. Some have, however:

There are several things going on here:

1. When she says she comes from a family "that's been genocided in the 1940s by the Nazis," turning "genocide" into a verb, she indicates that she speaks the new radical speak, which is obviously important to progressives always fearful of… https://t.co/plUPZVzkdn

— Peter Savodnik (@petersavodnik) September 27, 2026

There are numerous reasons to reject the charge of genocide. Among them is the extraordinary child vaccination program in Gaza in 2024. Later suspended and now resumed, this was facilitated by Tel Aviv and carried out by UNICEF and the World Health Organization. Israel is one of nine nations in the world with nuclear warheads. If its enemy- Hamas- in this war were one of the other eight, Israel would be deterred from using them to wipe out Gazan Palestinians because of the fear of retaliation.

Thus, to be clear: with that advantage and an overwhelming advantage in conventional forces over Hamas, Gazans have not been wiped out, and not nearly so. If Israel were trying to wipe out a people, the country is roughly as inept as Hamas is, well, genocidal.

None of that is new, nor should it be controversial. But in the video clip below, the Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives in the second congressional district of Maine (the largest in area east of the Mississippi), Matt Dunlap remarks (at 1:00) "this has become the moral issue of our time."

Not the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Not the persecution of non-Muslims in the Muslim world. Most of all, not the terrorist attack of October 7, 2023 with the intent by Hamas of raping and murdering as many Jews as possible. And not the numerous terrorist groups throughout Asia and Africa. They go unmentioned because they are not Jewish, acting on behalf of a democratic state in retaliation for a deadly attack.

In the future, the ignorance, bigotry, or fear of cancellation which undergirds the litmus test, the requirement to denounce Israel dishonestly, will be a matter of extensive debate. However, we do know now that either Woke 1 has been replaced by Woke 2 or that the original has taken a very ugly turn.

Share |