However defensible this agenda was twenty years ago, it no longer fits the needs of the time. Clinton Democrats have become prisoners of their history, presenting as eternal political truths clichés that already sounded tired in the editorial pages of the Lewinsky-era Washington Post . Those who claim that burying Clintonism amounts to a repudiation of liberalism should reexamine the former president’s own words. In the speech launching his run for the White House, Clinton skittered away from the liberal label. “The change we must make isn’t liberal or conservative,” he said. “It’s different and it’s both.” Compare that with Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist who depicted himself as a proud heir to FDR and LBJ. Then ask which program New Deal liberals would have recognized as their successor.