That’s not because the party has steadfastly refused Sanders’ influence, forcing him to repeat the same old points to no avail—it’s the opposite. Since Sanders rocketed to national prominence with his 2016 presidential primary challenge to Hillary Clinton, the wild-haired senator has remained stubbornly dedicated to the policies he has championed, and the entire Democratic Party has moved toward him.

Despite that signature Bernie locution—the short, familiar phrases, the elevated volume, the iconic Brooklyn accent—little in Sanders’ speech felt uncommon (aside from a call to keep big money out of primary elections, a thinly veiled reference to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s multimillion-dollar spending spree to knock progressive House reps out of Congress). When, on Tuesday night, Sanders said his vision was “not a radical agenda,” he was absolutely correct. Much of it has become the actual agenda of the Democratic Party.

There were very few themes in Sanders’ speech that other Democratic speakers hadn’t already covered on Monday and Tuesday. Senators and governors and members of Congress alike made explicit mentions of class-driven policy designed to help the working and middle classes. Multiple union members, of both rank and file and leadership, took the stage, advocating for organized labor.

The PRO Act, which would drastically expand union density, is now a core Democratic policy. Kamala Harris has vocally embraced programs cracking down on corporate greed and has called for tax increases on the wealthy and corporations. Biden embraced a number of Sanders-backed plans for medical and student-debt cancellation. The 2024 DNC platform features a commitment to the expansion of Social Security and the especially Sandersian addition of dental care to Medicare.

It’s an astounding amount of influence for a man who has never won the Democratic presidential nomination and doesn’t possess once-in-a-generation oratorical skills. Still, in the eight years since Sanders failed to become the nominee the first time, and the four years since he failed the second time, he has managed to push the party toward dramatic policy and rhetorical changes. The substance of the 2024 DNC is a testament as much to his political legacy as to the party’s actual presidents.

And Sanders, whose presence at the 2016 DNC was controversial and contentious, now looks like a figure of party unity, one who has even helped bridge the gap from Biden to Harris. He got a hero’s welcome from the convention Tuesday night, with Democratic delegates chanting his name.

On the convention floor, I spoke with Keith Ellison, a prominent Bernie 2016 proxy and now the attorney general of Minnesota, about how he views Sanders’ legacy eight years on.

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“Kamala and Joe Biden have walked picket lines, and Tim is a union member. That’s who the ticket is,” Ellison told me. “This,” he said, pointing to a student-debt-cancellation pin, “used to be a pipe dream. Now it’s reality.

“I always believed it was possible. I always thought we would end up somewhere in this neighborhood,” Ellison added. “It’s remarkable, but it had to come.”

It’s not inconceivable that we’ll one day look back on Sanders’ not-altogether-memorable 2024 DNC remarks as a valedictory as well. He’s about to turn 83, older than Joe Biden. He’s running for reelection in the Senate, which would give him another six years, at which point he would be pushing 90. Congress may be full of old-timers, but there aren’t many nonagenarians.

Nothing about his time slot in the 8 p.m. bloc indicated that Sanders was getting the star treatment. No single line of his remarks got the headline-grabbing attention of that of Michelle Obama or Barack Obama or even Biden. But, looking back eight years, it’s clear that this event has been a testament to Sanders’ legacy too.

• Bernie Sanders
• Democrats
• 2024 Campaign

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