Today's millennials do not know what socialism is — "but they know what they don't like," Republican pollster Frank Luntz told Newsmax TV on Tuesday.
"They know that they want free healthcare," Luntz told "The Steve Malzberg Show" in an interview. "They know that they want free education. They know that they want free job training."
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Luntz, 54, who has polled for former presidential candidates Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich, is the author of Newsmax Magazine's September cover story, "Millennials: The GOP's Ticking Time Bomb."
"They want free everything — and to them that's what socialism gives them and capitalism doesn't," he told host Bill Tucker. "They don't want to work for it. They just want to get it.
"It says to the Republican Party that your message is not working with 18- to 29-year-olds," Luntz concluded. "They represent 19 percent of the electorate — and if you're losing them in this election, it could be by 2-1.
"If you're losing them by 2-1, how do you possibly win an election?"
In his Newsmax report, Luntz said the GOP faced two fronts regarding millennials: "Give them a chance to fulfill their sky-high expectations and they could become life-long Republicans.
"But continue to ignore this restless generation, and the party could find itself a political afterthought for decades to come."
Luntz quoted Charlie Kirk, 22, founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, a national student movement focusing on conservative issues.
He expressed his dismay at the GOP's outreach to members of his generation. Kirk spoke at the Republican National Convention last month in Cleveland.
"I firmly believe that if we do not make the necessary changes in the next four to eight to 12 years," Kirk told Luntz, "we'll become a permanent minority party at least on the presidential stage."