A year after Occupy Wall Street was sparked, the mainstream media reached their consensus on the movement: it failed to create change. “For all intents and purposes, the Occupy movement is dead,” eulogized the New York Times. In a nation with a notoriously short attention span, it’s not surprising that the lack of immediate success gave rise to lamentations about its failure.

Unlike the Tea Party, to which it is often compared, Occupy did not have a mainstream party in its thrall, nor major donors keeping its issues alive. The 2012 elections were not marked by much attention to the grievances that enlivened the two thousand protesters who set up camp in the tight quarters of Zuccotti Park in September 2011, who inspired hundreds of similar occupations across the nation.

What a difference another year makes. “Maybe Occupy Wall Street Wasn’t Such a Failure After All,” mulled Business Insider on OWS’s second birthday, reconsidering the received wisdom and concluding that this was a case of “delayed success.” We agree. Occupy’s impact on US political discourse and its formative influence on many of its participants endures to this day, and its legacy continues to unfold.