This is a broad generalization, of course. Bill Clinton, for all his flaws, expanded trade abroad, opened markets, and for his efforts (against the will of the majority of his party) presided over one of the great booms in American economic history. Once Hillarycare was defanged, Clinton was a pretty good President on economic issues.
Bush has had a mixed record, largely because the growing anxiety of parts of his coalition to the inevitable upheavals that international trade has brought along with prosperity.
By any measure, though, living with chaos and creative destruction is better than the alternative. A brief glance at the economic agenda of the Democrat Congress shows a bizarre nostalgia for the economics of the 1950's, when Americans were immeasurably poorer but lived more predictable lives.
Americans have traditionally understood that our society is based upon infinite opportunity, not assured mediocrity. And the simple fact is that any attempt to smooth out the disruption that come with freedom undermines the creative destruction that has been the engine of our economic growth for over 200 years.
Change and contingency are the prices we pay for increasing prosperity and the freedoms we enjoy. Communism and Socialism are proven failures as prosperity generators, although they promised and failed to deliver equal access to poor products and health care for all.
The American experience, on the other hand, is that every time we try to tame the vicissitudes of life we undermine freedom and slow the march to greater prosperity and opportunity for all. Contrary to the luddites of today, Socialists and the Michael Moore fanatics, the worst products and medical care available in America exceed the best almost anywhere else in the world because we are prosperous.
America is not perfect. But in almost every case the solution to our problems is less government control rather than more. Even the most egregious market failures are small prices to pay for the progress and prosperity almost every American enjoys. And for those market failures, private initiatives rather than government solutions will provide a superior solution in the end.
July 31st marks the birthday of Milton Friedman, one of the greatest minds of the 20th Century. His legacies include the all-volunteer army (the best in the world) and a movement toward deregulation of our economy that has helped create the single-longest period of economic expansion in world history.
His life's work was evangelization of freedom to choose. We would do well to honor his memory by taking up the banner of freedom against all those who want to regulate, stabilize and neuter our freedom to choose.