Zaidane is the president and CEO of Millennial Action Project.
Millennials are sweeping into public office: From 2018 to 2020, the United States saw a 266 percent increase in young people running for Congress. In 2021, young people made history with candidates like Nadarius Clark, the youngest Democrat elected to the legislature in Virginia history, and 36-year-old Brandon Umba, a Republican elected to the New Jersey General Assembly. It’s clear from this swell of young people stepping into public service that we are not only ready to shift the political status quo, but we see ourselves as agents of change to do just that. However, to succeed, there’s one thing this generation of elected leaders is missing: professional development.
Kaplan Solutions attributes major benefits to professional development, including increased retention, confidence and credibility, easier succession planning, re-energized staff, and increased efficiency. A recent Gallup report found that 59 percent of millennials say opportunities to learn and grow are extremely important to them when applying for a job. That’s more than any other generation, and legislators are no exception. Freshman members of the House of Representatives are asking for resources that can help them navigate the modern challenges they face. Instead, as Rep. Ilhan Omar shared, “When people are giving you advice, it’s from decades ago as a freshman.”
It’s not always a question of will. In some cases, more senior legislators simply lack the skills that new legislators desperately need to learn. As Congress has become increasingly hyper-polarized, the most visible policymakers are not always the best role models for young leaders. That puts new lawmakers in a tough position: They can either learn bad behaviors from the colleagues they see around them, or they can try to learn how to be an effective policymaker without any support or resources to do so.
In a hearing held by the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, freshmen asked for more robust onboarding and professional development in areas like promoting civility and respect, as well as in leadership training. The committee’s vice chair, Rep. Will Timmons, said in a joint statement with fellow committee member Mary Gay Scanlon, “We came to Congress with different backgrounds but with a similar goal, and that’s to solve problems for the American people. By improving the support, resources, and tools available to new Members of Congress, we can help the next generation of leaders get to work as soon as they set foot in our nation’s capital.” This desire for professional development doesn’t stop with young legislators. Congressional staffers reported similar needs when it comes to investing in their career growth and development. Yet instead of receiving the support they require, these aides — the majority of whom are millennials — are burning out at their jobs and quitting in just 3.1 years.
The outcome of providing more professional development is clear: Our young elected officials and their teams want training to craft and enact good policies for their constituents. The more equipped our leaders are, the more equipped we are to tackle issues important for the future. And the good news is, even though millennials may feel under-equipped for the positions they are taking on today, the tide seems to be turning when it comes to investing in the future. Millennial-run congressional offices have begun advocating for improving pay and benefits, along with securing up-to-date technology, equipment and platforms for their staff.
Millennials are now the largest generation in America, making up the majority of the American workforce, military, consumers and more. They are diving into leadership positions such as CEOs, managers, investors and even members of Congress. As millennials take the reins, our success will ripple across the organizations, industries and institutions that we lead. It’s in everyone’s best interest to make sure that the next generation of leaders has the tools, training and skills to do their jobs well. Young people have taken the first step towards changing our politics for the better. Now we need to make sure they have the resources available to get the job done.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress in the House Chamber at the Capitol on Feb. 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump delivered his address days after the Supreme Court struck down the administration's tariff strategy, and amid a U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf threatening Iran.
Some MAGA loyalists have turned on Trump. Why the rest haven’t
I recently watched "A Face in the Crowd" for the umpteenth time.
I had a better reason than procrastination to rewatch Elia Kazan’s brilliant 1957 film exploring populism in the television age. It was homework. I was asked to discuss it with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz at the just-concluded TCM Film Festival in Los Angeles. As a pundit and an author, I do a lot of public speaking. But I don’t really do a lot of cool public speaking, so this was a treat.
With that not-very-humble brag out of the way, I had a depressing realization watching it this time.
"A Face in the Crowd" tells the story of a charming drifter with a dark side named Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, played brilliantly by Andy Griffith. A singer with the gift of the gab, Rhodes takes off on radio but quickly segues to the brand-new medium of television. He becomes a national sensation — and political kingmaker — by forming a deep connection with the masses, particularly among the rural and working classes. His core audience is made up of people with grievances. “Everybody that’s got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle,” as Rhodes puts it.
The film’s climax (spoiler alert) comes when Rhodes’ manager and spurned lover, Marcia, turns on the microphone while the credits rolled at the end of “Cracker Barrel,” his national TV show. Rhodes tells his entourage what he really thinks of the “morons” in his audience. “Shucks, I can take chicken fertilizer and sell it to them for caviar. I can make them eat dog food, and they’ll think it’s steak. … Good night, you stupid idiots.”
It was a canonical “hot mic” moment in American cinema. But the idea that if people could glimpse the “real person” behind the popular facade, they’d turn on them is a very old theme in literature — think Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (1782) or Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s "The School for Scandal" (1777), in which diaries and letters do the work of microphones.
Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg were very worried about the ability of demagogues to whip up populist fervor and manipulate the masses through the power of TV, in part because everyone had already seen it happen with radio and film, by Father Coughlin in America and Hitler in Germany. But as dark as their vision was, they still clung to the idea that if the demagogue was exposed, the people would instantly turn on their leader in an “Emperor’s New Clothes” moment for the mass media age.
And that’s the source of my depressing realization. I think they were wrong. It turns out that once that organic connection is made, even a shocking revelation of the truth won’t necessarily break the spell.
In 2016, a lot of writers revisited "A Face in the Crowd" to understand the Trump phenomenon. After all, here was a guy who used a TV show — "The Apprentice" — and social media to build a massive following, going over the heads of the “establishment.” Trump’s own hot mic moment with "Access Hollywood," in which he boasted of his sexual predations, proved insufficient to undo him. That was hardly the only such moment for him. We’ve heard Trump bully the Georgia secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes.” He told Bob Woodward he deliberately “played down” COVID-19. After leaving office, he was recorded telling aides he shouldn’t be sharing classified documents with them — then doing it anyway. And so on.
Trump’s famous claim that he could “shoot somebody” on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters may have been hyperbole. But it’s not crazy to think he wouldn’t lose as many voters as he should.
In the film, Lonesome Rhodes implodes when Americans encounter his off-air persona. The key to Trump’s success is that he ran as his off-air persona. Why people love that persona is a complicated question. Among the many complementary explanations is that he comes across as authentic, and some people value authenticity more than they value good character, honesty, or competence.
This is not just a problem for Republicans. Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner once had a Nazi tattoo and has said things about women as distasteful as Trump’s “grab them by (the genitals)” comments, and the Democratic establishment is rallying around him because he’s authentic — and because Democrats want to win that race.
Many prominent MAGA loyalists are turning on Trump these days. They claim — wrongly in my opinion — that he’s changed and that the Iran war is a betrayal of their cause. But if you look at the polls, voters who describe themselves as “MAGA” still overwhelmingly support Trump. In short, he still has the Fifth Avenue voters on his side.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.