In this column, Jonah Goldberg notes that the Democrats made political hay for many years on the myth that Herbert Hoover was an advocate of laissez-faire capitalism and the reason why the depression became The Great Depression was that he twiddled his thumbs in the White House while the economy imploded. The story is entirely false (Hoover was an activist whose activist moves made things far worse), but it worked for the Democrats. Truth is the first casualty of politics.
Right now, it’s the same move. The financial crisis is being blamed on laissez-faire and “deregulation” in an effort to take advantage of the fact that most people have no idea as to the causality.
I’ll add that if the Democrats sweep into power, their further meddling in the market will prolong the economic troubles, but they will say, “We’re doing the best we can to get the country out of the mess left by the Bush administration. Things are still bad, but don’t blame us.” Of course, most of the media will buy and spread that line.
