Better Days Are Coming

Letter to the Millennials 6

7 min readFeb 17, 2021

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This is the sixth installment of a conversation with the generation of my students and their younger peers since August of 2014. The tone has been encouraging, though at times in the depth of the Trump Era, pessimistic. This week the Trump Era is officially over. Yes, he escaped impeachment, but at the end, even the leader of his own party Mitch McConnell stated, “The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things.” As of this morning, 58% of Americans say that Trump should have been convicted, according to an ABC/IPSOS Poll. Trump Dead Enders like Lindsay Graham say that 70 million Republicans are with Trump, but in reality only 17% of the citizens subscribe to the conspiracy theories put forth by people like Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene, according to a December 30, 2020 IPSOS poll. As the authoritative conservative Wall Street Journal Editorial Board wrote:

Mr. Trump may run again, but he won’t win another national election. He lost re-election before the events of Jan. 6, and as President his job approval never rose above 50%. He may go on a revenge campaign tour, or run as a third-party candidate, but all he will accomplish is to divide the center-right and elect Democrats. The GOP’s defeats in the two…

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Jonathan Taplin
Jonathan Taplin

Written by Jonathan Taplin

Director Emeritus, USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. Producer/Author, “Mean Streets”, “Move Fast & Break Things”. New book, “The Magic Years”, out 3/21.