Spiritualism was debunked- we can do the same with Keynesian spending

For some reason or another this summer I was on a Gilded Age kick and started reading a number of histories about the period. One of the more remarkable sub-phenomena at that time was Spiritualism. The trend started in the 18th Century with the work of Franz Mesmer and his ability to "Mesmerize" people. It really kicked off in America though in 1848 when the Foxes, a pair of teenage sisters in upstate New York learned to crack their knuckles in a way that they convinced their family and neighbor the house was possessed. Then, by creating a code wherein two "knocks" meant "yes" and one "no" (or maybe it was the other way around) they pretended to be able to communicate with the dead.

This little game became a fad which swept the country, filling theaters in small towns, grange fairs on the plains, and operas in the major cities. President Lincoln's wife held seances in the White House, which the President attended. Spiritualism kicked around for awhile too, with supporters around the US and the UK paying "gypsies" and "mediums" to tell their fortune, read their palms, and talk to the dead via ouija boards and a variety of other silly methods, well into the early 20th Century.

Celebrities were involved. Frank Baum, who wrote "The Wizard of Oz," watched from afar and was influenced deeply. Houdini tried to disprove it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was captivated. And PT Barnum, as one would expect, made money off of it.

Eventually though, Spiritualism faded, in part because of a concerted effort to debunk it.

The effort to show the mediums and the witches and the psychics for the fakes they were was led by a bizarre union of the very Christian and the very skeptical. The same foes who would face off in the Skopes trial years later, indirectly combined forces to point out to the masses that, actually, the dead do not talk.

There is a wealth of information about how various mediums were caught in the act by professional skeptics, but shockingly, many of these frauds remained in business. It reminds me of how Barron was calling Ponzi a fraud before his scheme was even near its peak, but no one paid attention- despite the reasoned argument and apparent evidence. Or how for the past thirty years Ron Paul has been claiming the Fed is counterfeiting money, when they are, and no one listened. Only when Christians and skeptics joined together, did Spiritualism lose its credibility.

This is precisely the sort of union it will take to reverse the American commitment to Keynesian economics. Abandoning print and borrow financing of government will require a combination of forces which seemingly would not agree on much, speaking to the masses.

There are some natural, but unexpected, allies here. A smart candidate can take advantage of these common interests, and move forward important political progress.