The Democratic National Convention began with an emphasis on outsiders—specifically, the much-derided, much-lampooned, mostly young Bernie Sanders dissidents protesting in the arena and on the streets. It ended with Hillary Clinton, the ultimate insider, giving a nomination address that matched the progressive platform her party (thanks to Sanders and his supporters) had ultimately approved. Uniting those two poles—the young and old, the boldly visionary and the cautiously centrist—is the central challenge of the American left, beyond this election. But by and large, the Democrats missed their chance this week to build that bridge, to fully invite the next generation in.

Many of the central themes of Sanders’s year of stump speeches—expanding Social Security, rejecting trade deals that hurt workers, providing debt-free college, reclaiming our democracy from big money—resounded throughout Clinton’s speech. While she identified the critical issues of social and economic justice and even decried systemic racism, she also acknowledged working-class anxieties, while telling Americans that they shouldn’t actually have to go to college in order to get a good job. And she told the nation that we could accomplish these goals if we work with common purpose. “Americans don’t say ‘I alone can fix it,’” Clinton said, referring to a line from Donald Trump from last week’s nomination speech. “They say, ‘We’ll fix it together!’”

Where were are the rising stars who will galvanize the public to make change happen?

But who will be the stalwarts who help press this agenda forward? Who are the rising stars who will galvanize the public to make change happen? If it takes a village to bring about transformation, then who are those villagers?

By and large, you didn’t see those people on the convention stage—or anywhere near prime time. The good news is that two rock stars did emerge on the final night of the convention. The bad news is that one of them is the Muslim father of a slain Marine, the other an African-American preacher and rabble-rouser, and neither of them is likely to have a future in elected politics.

What that half-hour or so of convention coverage showed to those who watched the sermon of Reverend William Barber II and the quiet-yet-determined outrage of Khizr Khan—was the best of America, and the rising left: multicultural, emotional, vehement, and striving for excellence. Khan taught a lesson in the power of our diversity, the courage of standing up to bigotry. A Muslim man pulling out the Constitution to call bullshit on Donald Trump told the story Democrats were trying to tell the entire week about the GOP nominee’s extremism—but mostly failing and falling flat—in one unforgettable gesture.