Who is the establishment? And why does it think people supporting Bernie Sanders are asking for too much?

That, in essence, was the key question on Thursday night at the Democratic debate hosted by MSNBC at the University of New Hampshire.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rejected the idea put forth by rival Sen. Bernie Sanders that she could possibly represent “the establishment” of U.S. power and politics by arguing that as “a woman running to be the first woman to be president” nobody else would give her that label.

Though it’s been a consistent theme of the campaign in recent weeks, Sanders made the characterization in the form a contrast not quite halfway through the debate.

“Hillary Clinton does represent the establishment,” said Sanders. “I represent, I hope, ordinary Americans who, by the way, are not that enamored with the establishment.”

Clinton said that was wrong. “Honestly,” she said, “Sen. Sanders is the only person who I think would characterize me, a woman running to be the first woman president, as exemplifying the establishment. And I’ve got to tell you that it is really quite amusing to me.”

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Amusing to Clinton or not, it has become quite clear that many, many people consider Clinton one of the firmest members of the Democratic party establishment—something that numerous observers (ex: here, here, here) appeared shocked to find out was restricted to only one gender.

According to John Nichols, writing at The Nation, Thursday night’s debate was quite clearly a case of the ‘It’s Just Not Achievable’ argument from Clinton and her establishment backers (many of them in the media), versus the demand for a ‘Political Revolution’ espoused by Sanders and his supporters. In recent days, much has been made about how each candidate understands and defines the word “progressive.”

In a blog post at the Campaign for America’s Future, co-director Robert Borosage framed the debate as a battle over what each candidate believes is politically possible: