Bernie Sanders presidential campaign is already bringing about a small bit of the revolution he is calling for, simply by existing as a true progressive in a race of barely-there Democrats.

During Sunday night’s Jefferson-Jackson dinner in New Hampshire, Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, and Hillary Clinton spoke to a large number of Democratic activists on topics ranging from social inequality to foreign policy.

Sanders’ campaign is having and will continue to have a major and visible effect on the general direction of the Democratic party by consistently forcing Hillary further to the left in order to compete with the promises Sanders has made. Hillary knows that she is in danger of losing the election due to her establishment politics and close ties with Wall Street, so she is making an effort to seem harder on the one percent.

At Sunday’s dinner, Hillary said that “republicans have stacked the deck for those at the top.” No mention, of course, that Hillary is certainly one of those at the top. It is unclear if anyone is buying her shtick, but her shift to the left can only benefit the Democratic party as a whole if she sticks to what she campaigns for.

Sanders campaign, too, is getting sleeker and more refined as he hones in on the issues he seemed to lack in the past, particularly dealing with foreign policy, a subject that he noticeably skimmed over in the last debate.

Sanders has done an admirable job proving that he is a man of the people and will make serious reforms in the economy and social structure in the U.S., but he must continue to prove that he can be an effective commander in chief when it comes to defending our country from foreign threats.

If Bernie Sanders is not our president come November 2016, it will be a real tragedy. And yet, there is no way that his candidacy will not have a strong and lasting effect on the Democratic party for years to come. His campaign is proof that change can happen, and not some sort of bought-and-sold change we know, but true political reform.

Read more at The Huffington Post.