What Hillary can learn from Bernie.

• Author: Nichols, John
• Position: Hillary Rodham Clinton - Bernie Sanders

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The great test for Hillary Clinton in the coming weeks and months will be one of incorporation. Can the former Secretary of State and her supporters find a way to integrate the best of what Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has brought to the 2016 Democratic primary competition into the general election campaign?

Barring a striking shift in the direction of the Democratic contest, it is increasingly likely that Clinton will emerge as the nominee. But of what? Of a Democratic Party that merely reflects the sensibilities of the winner of an unexpectedly long and competitive contest? Or a Democratic Party that consciously seeks to capture the boldest ideas and the best energy of its active and potential supporters?

For Clinton and her aides, the processes of integration and incorporation are necessary. They have every right to celebrate their successes, but they also must recognize that another Democratic candidate attracted substantial support in the primaries. It's not just a matter of capturing the votes of millions of Sanders backers, some of whom might consider a progressive third-party contender such as Jill Stein of the Greens, and many of whom might simply be disinclined to vote in November. This goes much deeper.

Candidates and parties get stronger when they are forced to figure out how and why a challenger has mounted a stronger-than-expected bid against an established contender. Indeed, all dynamic movements and enterprises must learn from candidacies and movements that break new ground.

Already, Chloe Maxmin, the co-founder of the Divest Harvard and First Here, Then Everywhere climate activist groups, has written in The Nation about "What the Climate Movement Can Learn From Bernie Sanders's Political Revolution." And Fortune magazine is speculating about "What Bernie Sanders's Presidential Campaign Can Actually Teach Business Leaders."

But, just because it makes sense to draw lessons from an intense primary season, and from an able challenger, it does not mean those lessons will be drawn. In politics, as in life, that which is necessary is not always easy.

Just as today's political and media elites are generous to establishment candidates and dismissive of outsiders--relentlessly reinforcing a broken status quo--so it has ever been. Only the wisest winners choose to learn from vanquished foes, as Abraham Lincoln did when he established his "team of rivals" and as Franklin Roosevelt did when he invited Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas to offer counsel on forging a New Deal.

For the most part, the story is one of resistance to next steps and fresh approaches--even by nominees who believe they are blazing new trails. That resistance can harm not just individual contenders and parties but also the governance that extends from...