Adam Cohen of the New York Times highlights one of the major, under the radar projects of the radical right: dismantling the power of the government to regulate. This can include workplace safety, the environment, civil rights in hiring, any kind of consumer protection, any kind of wage law, and probably even Social Security, Medicaid, and public education. This is what they’ve been talking about when they’ve said “Big Government” — Basically, everything the government does except war.

States’ rights conservatives have always been nostalgic for the pre-1937 doctrines, which they have lately taken to calling the Constitution-in-Exile. They argue - at conferences like “Rolling Back the New Deal” and in papers like “Was the New Deal Constitutional?” - that Congress lacks the power to do things like forcing employers to participate in Social Security.

We’ve all been worried about what Bush will do with the Supreme Court — but mostly, we’ve been thinking about Roe v. Wade, the overturning of which would be a disaster. But now we see what the fiscal conservatives are talking about when they complain about so-called “activitist judges.” They’re talking about the end of government as we know it.