James Pethokoukis thinks so, and I’m inclined to agree.

The phrase “through a mirror darkly” keeps popping to mind as I think about where the housing/credit crisis and the government’s response to it are taking us. We are entering uncharted territory. What seemed unthinkable a few months ago is not only possible today but maybe even probable.

The Fed’s brokering and backing of the JPMorgan-Bear Stearns deal may be just the start. Think about it: Uncle Sam might well be on the verge of doing one or more of the following: 1) refinancing a couple million mortgages and requiring lenders to write down the value of loans; 2) buying—via the Fed—billions in mortgage-backed securities; 3) creating a new government entity to nationalize troubled institutions.

Big Government seems to be definitely back in the building. And if it isn’t, I think it at least just pulled into the parking lot. . . .

Intervention. Regulation. Nationalization. No such thing as a free lunch, folks. These are prices the private sector will pay for government help.

The problem is that most Americans seem just fine with government bailouts these days.  No longer are we a society that expects people to help themselves but rather a society that bellies up to the government buffet and says “what about me?”

And as government grows larger and more powerful to meet those “what about me?” demands we’re going to pay for it all with loss of freedom.

Better to let major financial companies fail - along with hundreds of thousands of borrowers - than to make ourselves vulnerable to the machinations of big government.