Did Anyone Say “War Prosperity?”

OUR ELECTIONS ARE NOTABLE for verbiage. But now that the air has been cleared of campaign oratory, what emerges is that only one issue aroused wide-spread interest-prosperity, i.e., full production and full employment. The recent election made it clear that by now both major parties accept the idea that the government is responsible for economic prosperity. It is also clear that neither party has discovered any satisfactory method of assuring the American standard of living except through high-level war preparations. Whether people vote for Democrats or Republicans, they can be quite sure that they are voting for a permanent war economy as the underpinning of our economic and social stability.

In 1952, the Democrats campaigned on...