"The real point, though, is not about the character of our leaders, it is about how choices made deep in the nation’s past continue to shape its direction deep into the future."

I don't think laissez-faire really exists in the modern world. I mean you'd have to be very extreme to be completely non-interventionist when it comes to the economy. Say for instance, a typical neoclassical/"right wing" view would be that you should raise interest rates when there are signs the economy is over-heating, in order to ward off inflation: that's an intervention. So the left/right isn't really about interventionism vs. non-interventionism. I'd say it's more accurately about unemployment vs. inflation. Economic schools that are thought of as "right wing", e.g. the Austrian school, are typically more focused on fighting against inflation, whereas schools that are thought of as "left wing", e.g. the post-Keynesians, typically see unemployment as the bigger problem in society.