In conversations with others about the dangers of an Obama victory, I've been pointing out it will most likely lead to an explosion in the scope of government control of the economy on a scale not seen since the New Deal. Anyone with minimal brain activity discern that by reading the tea leaves of Obama's campaign rhetoric.

Paul H. Rubin lays it out in scary detail in a bracing op-ed from today's Wall Street Journal, "Get Ready For The New New Deal":

Unlike FDR, Mr. Obama will not have to create the mechanisms government uses to interfere with the economy before imposing his policies. FDR had to get the Supreme Court to overturn a century's worth of precedents limiting the power of government before he could use the Constitution's commerce clause, among other things, to increase government control of the economy. Mr. Obama will have no such problem.

FDR also had to create agencies to implement regulations. Today, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Labor Relations Board (both created in the 1930s) as well as the Environmental Protection Agency and others created later are in place. Increasing their power will be easier than creating them from scratch.

Even before the current crisis, there was a great demand for increased government regulation to limit global warming. That gives the next president a ready-made box in which to place more regulation, and a legion of supports eager for it.

It's my belief the thinking members of the Left welcome the financial crisis for the very reasons described in Rubin's op-ed. They understand it is a rare opportunity to radically expand government control over economic activity by exploit fear of economic collapse. Americans are indoctrinated with the myth of the New Deal -- that government saved capitalism -- and will hearken to that myth to justify massively expanding government regulation.

Does it matter that the New Deal myth is wrong? That FDR's policies artificially prolonged the Great Depression?

Not really, since most Americans believe it. And left-wingers don't really care one way or another: their goal is growing government whether it or not it hurts the economy.