In an effort to calm recurring speculation on the internal fight among congressional Democrats, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and democratic socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez emerged from a meeting last week with the optics of renewed unity and purpose after weeks of public sparring.

For weeks now, the tensions within the Democratic Party caucus have been building over political differences in how to respond to the Trump-led Republican agenda. Those tensions boiled over when Pelosi pushed through a multi-billion-dollar bill that provided funding for the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration Control Enforcement (ICE) with none of the amendments negotiated by progressives for added migrant protections. For Pelosi, the showdown over the bill was intended to assure centrist Democrats that she was still in charge of the party caucus despite growing media attention for more left-wing Democrats.

But the popularity of progressives in Congress is not a media creation. It reflects the growing popularity of democratic socialist ideas across the country, and a growing desire for deep and substantive change in politics.