ILYA SOMIN: “For what it’s worth, I like the idea of a black president, believe that Obama is an admirable person in many ways, and have doubts about McCain’s temperament similar to those expressed by George Will. Nonetheless, I fear that the conjunction of an Obama victory, a strongly Democratic Congress, and a major economic crisis will produce a massive and difficult to reverse expansion of government. . . . We know from past history that economic crises are a major opportunity for expansion of government power. Robert Higgs’ book Crisis and Leviathan is a good discussion of the basic dynamics. We also know that divided government tends to impede the growth of the state, while united government facilitates it. The combination of united government and a major economic crisis is likely to lead to a great expansion of government, just as it did on several previous occasions such as the 1930s.”

And read Ross Douthat, too.