1 Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz U.S. Senators, Vermont and Texas Stephen Voss/Redux; Jeff Wilson for Politico Magazine

Eighteen months ago, Sanders was “Bernie Who?” to anyone outside northern New England. But through unbridled passion and sheer force of repetition, and in a Brooklyn accent that launched a thousand impersonations, this rumpled character from a tiny state shattered the apparent consensus that had emerged among Americans over what national politicians were allowed to discuss.

Sanders’ unapologetic and relentless clarity about principles reminded America that you could build a following around actual ideas, shouted clearly, over and over. | Stephen Voss/Redux

Cruz’s convention speech left him standing alone as the standard-bearer for the ideas wing of movement conservatism after November. | Stephen Voss/Redux

Some of his pet issues, like breaking up banks and switching to single-payer health care, were considered policy third rails until Sanders rode them to wins in an astonishing 23 primaries and caucuses. Others, like free college tuition, were barely blips on the ideas radar before he pushed them into the conversation. On a number of issues—notably, trade and the $15 hourly minimum wage—Sanders got his primary rival, Hillary Clinton, to move left and, in the case of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to reverse her position entirely. Not to mention that Sanders, a longtime independent who officially became a Democrat only when he declared his candidacy, persuaded the party to adopt many of his ideas in its official platform. In a race in which one leading candidate blurted out policies seemingly on the fly, and the other clearly assembled them by committee, Sanders’ unapologetic and relentless clarity about principles—whether you found those principles thrilling or totally absurd—reminded America that you could build a following around actual ideas, shouted clearly, over and over.

Ted Cruz, too, built his following around ideas delivered over and over: a crisp and carefully honed set of Tea Party principles that left him the No. 2 vote-getter in the GOP primary after Donald Trump blew all the more ideologically compromising figures off the landscape. For conservative Republicans who fretted at Trump’s wobbliness on abortion, health care and gun control, the Texas senator was the unwavering antidote, denouncing Trump with the same intransigence he had applied to his own party’s leaders during the 2013 government shutdown. (No surprise, then, that elders like toppled Speaker John Boehner preferred even Trump to Cruz, whom he memorably dubbed “Lucifer in the flesh” during the primaries.) Cruz may have lost, but he used his final turn in the spotlight at the GOP convention to make a lengthy and vehement argument that principles should still matter in his party, before pointedly declining to endorse the candidate in front of him and encouraging the crowd to “vote your conscience.” Cruz’s historically bold move might have been public political suicide—or the savviest long-game move of the summer. Either way, it left Cruz standing dramatically alone as the standard-bearer for the ideas wing of movement conservatism after November.

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And that is why we begin this list with a most unlikely pairing of ideological opposites. Trump might have won his party’s nomination, and we have no doubt that 2016 will long be known as the year of the hectoring uncle with oddly sculpted hair. But if you’re looking for this crazy campaign season’s most striking examples of how actual ideas can move the political realm, it’s Sanders and Cruz—the hoarse independent senator from Vermont and the smooth-talking Tea Party debater from Texas—who most powerfully used the platform of a presidential race to remind America of why ideas matter in politics. It was their ideas that drove their movements. And though the movements didn’t land them on the ticket this fall, they’ll be echoing through American politics, next year and beyond.



Ted vs. Bernie

Although they never debated each other, the senators from Texas and Vermont waged a compelling year-long argument about America’s future—one hammering home the value of liberty, toughness and keeping Washington out of our hair, and the other harping on inequality, compassion and the crucial role of the government. On immigration:

Cruz: “I oppose amnesty. I oppose citizenship. I oppose legalization.”

Sanders: “We need to take 11 million undocumented people out of the shadows, out of fear, and we need to provide them with legal protection.” On healthcare:

Cruz: “Imagine in 2017 a new president signing legislation repealing every word of Obamacare. Imagine health care reform that keeps government out of the way between you and your doctor and that makes health insurance personal and portable and affordable.”

Sanders: “We are the only major country on earth that does not guarantee health care to all people as a right, and I think we should change that.” On trade:

Cruz: “We deserve trade policies that put the interests of American farmers and manufacturing jobs over the global interests funding the lobbyists.”

Sanders: “You cannot be on the side of those workers who have lost their jobs, because of disastrous trade agreements, and support those corporations who have thrown millions of our workers out on the street.” On socialism:

Cruz: “We’re doing a horrible job, and by ‘we’ I mean conservatives, Republicans, free marketers—anyone who believes in liberty is doing a horrible job if half of young people think socialism is a good idea. Socialism has been an abject failure across the face of the globe, millions have suffered under socialism, and yet we’re not doing an effective job communicating that.”

Sanders: “My view of democratic socialism builds on the success of many other countries around the world that have done a far better job than we have in protecting the needs of their working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor. Democratic socialism means that we must create an economy that works for all, not just the very wealthy.” On the establishment:

Cruz: “Our nation is exceptional because it was built on the five most beautiful and powerful words in the English language, ‘I want to be free.’ Never has that message been more needed than today. … Citizens are furious, rightly furious, at a political establishment that cynically breaks its promises, and that ignores the will of the people.”

Sanders: “The American people will not continue to accept a corrupt campaign finance system that is undermining American democracy, and we will not accept a rigged economy in which ordinary Americans work longer hours for lower wages, while almost all new income and wealth goes to the top 1 percent.”