Earlier this year it almost did. Bernie Sanders’s campaign, bitterly denounced by Clinton supporters at the time, is one of the best reasons for Democratic optimism today. Not since Reagan conservatives took over the GOP has a movement within one of the two major parties been better positioned. In 1976 as today, activists could point to the enthusiasm generated by their candidate against an establishment favorite who went on to lose the general election, undercutting the old guard’s legitimacy and clearing the way for a new approach. The coming years will be a chaotic time in Democratic politics. Progressives from the left wing of the party will vie with holdouts from the Clinton era, while both define their relationship to the burgeoning anti-Trump resistance. The Tea Party movement had begun to coalesce by the end of Obama’s first month in office, with their first official protests following soon after. Within seventy-two hours of Trump’s election, protests had broken out in thirty-seven cities. The passion behind this campaign is real. The first politicians to channel it effectively will become leaders in the next Democratic Party.