evidence: Having toiled his entire political career as a gadfly, Sanders is now a prophet. "The ideas we brought forth in 2016, which were considered, not only by the Democratic establishment but by the editorial writers, to be extreme and fringe and out of step with where the American people are," Sanders told me, "are now what is in, by and large, the Democratic national platform and are being adopted by candidates across the country." What’s more, the Democratic Party’s future—as reflected by the remarkable rise of the 29-year-old New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—has clearly tilted to the left. This development has been as satisfying for Sanders as it was unexpected. "We have had more success in ideologically changing the party than I would have dreamed possible," he said. "The world has changed." [...] For Sanders, who spent most of his political career as a lonely voice in the wilderness, the opportunity of these past three years to be heard, to call attention to issues that no one used to care about, has been as gratifying as anything. "He still cares immensely about the hour-and-fifteen-minute, eat-your-spinach speeches he gives," Briggs says. "He likes the huge crowds, but he was happy making the same arguments to a hundred people at town-hall meetings in the Northeast Kingdom."