Congressman David Brat (R.,VA.) showed a group of young conservatives why 2016 Democratic Presidential Candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ political socialism and free college platform is incompatible.

Brat, the economist turned politician, spoke about how free market principles connect with education policy during the Young Americas Foundation’s National Conservative Student Conference on Tuesday evening.

Brat said in an interview with Red Alert Politics that free market principles are the only thing that can fuel Sanders policies.

“Modern education calls entrepreneurs and free-market capitalists morally bad," Brat said. "So ask Sanders, if he’s for the success of young people are you going to call the only entity that’s responsible for modern economic growth bad? You don’t get any of the programs he wants without free markets first. He’ll say free markets and capitalism are morally bad, but his whole proposition is wrong. You’re going to tell young kids whose only shot at success in life is education and business that it’s not a morally good life?”

The current form of education reform the Democrats want isn’t working, Brat said, and the irony is that Democrats support subsidies only for those who can afford college. The conservative solution, allows students to achieve important skills, without crippling debt.

“The question we need to ask ‘is the current Democratic strategy working in any way shape or form for young people?’ The answer is no," Brat said. "Do kids graduating from high school even know what a business is? Many don’t. 40 or 50 percent will go to college, the other half won’t. So I think it’s rich, that the left who claims to care about the poor, is talking about subsidies and loans only for the richest group. What about the rest of the kids that don’t go to college? So I want to get the private sector involved with using the Pell grant for business certificates and technical certification on top of what we’re doing already.”

Brat said that the youth desperately wants a candidate who can connect personal philosophy with policies, and can cut through the drama.

“Young people are yearning to find someone who follows principles. You don’t have to be engaged in political life and all this kind of drama if you have clear principles,” Brat said. “The left is trying to give a moral account on capitalism and minimum wage, yet they don’t have a moral philosophy they can name.”

According to Brat, Republicans have that strategy but they just need to advertise it.

"Republicans have the winning formula across the board for the young folks,” Brat said.”The problem is we don’t have people educating the youth about that tradition and the clear success story we have.”

This article is from Red Alert Politics’ Campus Correspondent Program. Would you like to contribute a story from your school? Apply here to be a Campus Correspondent for RAP!