Clinton was elected president in the 1990s at a time when Left-oriented parties across the country were racing to the Right. In the UK, this was represented by Tony Blair, whose Blairites have managed to more or less guide the course of the party since (with a brief interruption by Jeremy Corbyn and his insurgents).

In the US, whether Third Way politics still governs the Democratic Party is a more complicated question. On a whole host of issues, the Democratic Party is far to the Left of where it was when Clinton was in charge.

While Bill Clinton informed us that abortion should be ‘safe, legal, and rare,’ Democratic politicians from coast to coast now argue that abortion is just another healthcare procedure that should even be subsidized with taxpayer dollars. Prohibitions on gay marriage are history; instead, Democrats are now on the cutting-edge of LGBT issues, using the force of law to defend transitions for minors.

On the economic front, too, Democrats are much more progressive. Clintonian free trade policies are no longer in favor among the leadership of either party. Unions are well represented in party ranks and its agenda. Talk of debt and deficits — a mainstay of Clintonian economics — is all but discarded.

And yet the party still seems to appreciate certain aspects of Clinton’s political style. The former president was known for shifting to the Right on certain hot-button issues in order to deprive the other side of oxygen.

Joe Biden and now Kamala Harris learned that lesson well. The Democratic platform — backed by heavy campaign advertisements carrying the same message — embraces a crackdown on asylum seeking. Harris has jettisoned many of her more Left-wing positions from her aborted presidential run in 2020; she is no longer calling for the establishment of a universal healthcare system and is making few commitments on climate policy. Despite party activists demanding a change on policy towards Israel, all signs point towards Harris maintaining the status quo.

There is no doubt that as Clinton peered out onto the audience on Wednesday night, he realized he was dealing with a much more progressive political party than the one he once led. But he has to take some satisfaction in the fact that the lesson he taught his party in the 1990s — don’t be afraid to triangulate — is one still held close to the hearts of Democratic leaders.

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Zaid Jilani is a journalist who has worked for UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, The Intercept, and the Center for American Progress.

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