There are very very few real economists, meaning those who study to discover why people act. Most bright active people, those who go into politics especially, do not study economics and learn nothing about it because it is a boring subject. It is not like sociologyor psychology that can involve one's emotions and give one a sense of being able to change the world. It is not exciting like history and not a tool of power and remuneration like Business. It is boring.
Most of those who study economics in school do so with an idea to use it to manipulate economies in order gain some utopia. Thesee are Keynesians and Monetarists and others. They think to make an economy work at optimum all the time by tinkering with currency and levels of "public" spending but wind up providing excuses for rulers and politicians to raise taxes without having to name it that.
The closest to real theoretical economists are the traditionalist/supply-siders. Politically they can be quite left or quite conservative. They understand how money works, why people choose what they choose.The big government man seeks to remove constraints on an economy as a means of increasing revenues to the government. The conservative sees that removing constraints on the economy allows it to reach its optimum, but both understand how it works.
Money drives history and ideology.