There’s been a lot of hoopla over the latest Reason-Rupe survey of Millennials.

Personally, I think too much.

What the survey shows is a confused group of people who are slowly coming to terms with what they were taught in school and what they face in life.

This is a group that are fiscal conservatives only they don’t know it yet. Growing up, they were taught by their liberal teachers that government can solve all of society’s ills and are slowly learning that it can’t.

Republicans have been so vilified over the last 15 years it is easy to understand why a group growing and learning during these years would hold them in disdain. In truth, when Republicans were in charge they did not govern in a fiscally conservative manner. It can be argued that Bill Clinton’s governing was far more fiscally conservative. At the risk of angering my socially conservative friends, all we have received from the Republicans is the religion and not the economics of conservatism. Need I mention “compassionate conservatism” or Medicare part D?

Take a look at some of their beliefs:

Millennials who pay for their health insurance oppose paying more to provide coverage to the uninsured (39% to 59%), but millennials whose parents’ pay favor increased premiums (57% to 42%).

Millennials have a positive view of competition (70%) and profit (64%), and 55% say they’d like to start their own business one day

Millennials primarily hold individuals responsible for their success, decisions such as hard work (61%), ambition (39%), and self discipline(36%) as the top explanations of wealth. Poor life choices (40%),lack of job opportunities (37%), and lack of work ethic (31%) are the most common explanations of poverty

Millennials largely see fairness as getting what you earn rather than what you need. Nearly six in 10 desire a society where wealth is distributed according to achievement, even if that means unequal outcomes.

78% say the budget deficit and national debt are major problems.

Yes, they are socially liberal with 67% approving of gay marriage and 57% support legalizing marijuana; but overall this is a group that, while being taught government is the solution, want government to leave them alone.

Now, the GOP needs to develop a plan to tap into those sentiments

Think about it, given the politically divisive atmosphere this generation has grown up in, should we be surprised by a little schizophrenia among the millennials?

Scott Ott, Stephen Green and Bill Whittle discuss the survey: