After the Great Depression, Democrats ran against Herbert Hoover for 30 years—and with great success. Even though Hoover’s policies were anything but market-oriented—he greatly raised spending, taxes, and tariffs in response to the 1929 Wall Street crash—Republicans took the fall for Hooverism. It wasn’t until Ronald Reagan that free markets were fully politically rehabilitated.
History may be repeating itself. Speaking in New Hampshire in July, Hillary Clinton warned voters not to turn back control of the economic levers to Republicans: “We wouldn’t have had to have a recovery if we hadn’t had the kind of poor management and bad economic policies that put us into the ditch in the first place.” She added, “We can’t go back to the old policies that failed us before.” This will become the Democratic mantra in the 2016 campaign.
