DAVID MARCUS: Woke 1.0 is why entertainers needed our secret conservative club

As Rep.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , D-N.Y., laughs off the excesses of what she now calls "Woke 1.0," it is worth remembering just how bad censorship was under that politically correct cultural regime, and how it got so bad that Hollywood conservatives needed to form their own secret club.

In a recent podcast interview, actress Patricia Heaton, of ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ fame, spilled the beans on Friends of Abe, a secret organization for conservatives and independents in the entertainment industry, which she helped form during the Obama administration.

Abe, in this case, references the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln.

AOC SAYS ‘WOKE 1 WAS CRAZY,’ BUT DEMOCRATS STILL OWE VOTERS AN EXPLANATION A small core group that included stars such as Gary Sinise and Kelsey Grammar, soon turned into a loose organization of thousands, with a New York City chapter that I joined somewhere around 2012, and which was an oasis in a Gotham arts scene that made Mao look like William F.

Buckley, Jr.

As Heaton put it, "You could ask someone if they are a friend of Abe, or FOA, and if they said yeah, then you know there was another conservative or independent, or someone who is not a Democrat, that you could talk to without feeling like you were going to get in trouble at your job." KELSEY GRAMMER SUSPECTS HE 'MAY HAVE' LOST HOLLYWOOD ROLES DUE TO CONSERVATIVE VIEWS It is hard to overstate just how dangerous expressing conservative ideas was 5 to 15 years ago in the entertainment industry.

Take actor Gina Carano , who lost her role in a Disney TV show because she posted on social media that conservatives should not be treated as enemies.

In the New York theater scene at this time, in which many New York Friends of Abe toiled, to even question progressive shibboleths on the trans issue or, eventually, the evils of President Donald Trump, could garner a lifetime ban.

GINA CARANO SAYS DISNEY WENT QUIET AFTER SETTLEMENT AS SHE GEARS UP FOR ROUSEY FIGHT A conservative in theater was so rare, that when I "came out" as a conservative, as host of a regular 10-minute series, and sparred with the Bowery Poetry Club's hyper liberal audience, people — including good friends of mine — assumed for years that I was doing a bit.

For many in the arts at that time, including on the technical side of things, being known as right wing could have real consequences — as direct as not getting a job, or as indirect as just not getting invited to professional events.

KEVIN SORBO BLASTS HOLLYWOOD 'BLACKLISTING' OF CONSERVATIVES AS 'SEVENTH GRADE MEAN GIRLS' CULTURE What made Friends of Abe’s monthly meetups so special for us was just that we could talk freely, something that, prior to the emergence of wokeness, we all took for granted.

None of us take it for granted anymore.