People seem shocked that recent polls show millennials are enamored of socialism — an economic system that reasonable and educated Americans have long known is disastrous. They shouldn’t be; this has been a long time coming.

The latest survey by Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation shows that 70% of millennials are likely to vote socialist. Adding insult to injury, only 57% believe the Declaration of Independence “better guarantees freedom and equality” over “The Communist Manifesto.” The worst part of this is that it is real, not a parody piece in “The Onion.”

Now do you finally believe that our schools and universities, Hollywood and the liberal media are brainwashing our kids? Are you taking this seriously?

I’m taking it very seriously, which is why I devoted three of the 16 chapters of my just-released book, “Guilty by Reason of Insanity: Why the Democrats Must Not Win,” to discussing socialism and capitalism. I cite earlier polls showing this same disturbing trend concerning young people’s attitudes toward socialism.

A 2015 YouGov poll showed that 43% of Americans between 18 and 29 years of age had a favorable opinion of socialism and preferred it to capitalism. Then, in 2015, a Pew poll found that 69% of those under age 30 would be willing to vote for a socialist for president. Further, a Gallup poll revealed that only 45% of Americans ages 18 to 29 have a positive view of capitalism, while 51% have a positive view of socialism. No offense, but it’s like a wave of stupid has washed ashore.

Significantly, these kids are not only drawn to socialism but also repelled by capitalism — two distinct but related points. Their attraction to socialism partially stems from their aversion to capitalism. The leftist establishment has bombarded us for decades with socialist propaganda. Former Hillsdale College professor Burton Folsom notes that while America was founded on the idea of preserving individual liberties through limited government, many prominent American history textbook writers are strongly biased against America’s free market tradition and believe that America must be liberated from predatory capitalists. These teachings have now yielded an abundance of poisonous fruit.

A 2018 study by the National Association of Scholars showed that some 40% of colleges in the United States have no Republican professors. “The political registration of full-time, Ph.D.-holding professors in top-tier liberal arts colleges is overwhelmingly Democratic,” writes Mitchell Langbert. “Indeed, faculty political affiliations at 39 percent of the colleges in my sample are Republican free — having zero Republicans.” In the other 61% of schools, the ratio is “absurdly skewed against Republican affiliation and in favor of Democratic affiliation.”

It is astonishing that an economic system that has enslaved and impoverished nation after nation and was responsible for more than 100 million murders in the 20th century is portrayed as utopian, and that capitalism, which has liberated hundreds of millions from poverty, is depicted as evil.

The left works 24/7 to disseminate its destructive ideas. Chrissy Clark writes for The Federalist that Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, two prominent economics professors from the University of California, Berkeley, have been instrumental in designing economic policy for Democratic presidential hopefuls Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Despite their dubious calculations on such socialistic proposals as “Medicare for All,” the liberal media is working hand in hand with them to spread their propaganda — including the oft-repeated canard that the wealthiest Americans have the lowest tax rates. This type of coordinated effort, argues Clark, could “affect the way young people view economics for the rest of their lives.”

Here’s the point: Leftists have to lie to persuade people that socialism works and capitalism is evil. At some point, we must successfully make the case that the left must be judged by its policy failures rather than its supposedly good intentions. Here’s the other point: Leftists are seemingly more committed to their goals of fundamentally transforming America than conservatives are to preserving it.

One of the purposes of my book is to alert our side as to how urgent our situation has become and how critical the 2020 presidential and congressional elections are for us. Evidence abounds that many Americans are losing sight of the unique gloriousness of America’s founding ideas. I try to give patriots abundant ammunition to make our case for preserving these ideas and rejecting the insane ideas coming from the left, from socialism, to gender, to race, to abortion, to immigration, to the Constitution, and much more.

If we are concerned, as we claim to be, about bequeathing to our children the free and prosperous America we have enjoyed, we better get to work.

David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book is “Guilty by Reason of Insanity: Why the Democrats Must Not Win.” Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com.