There's an old saying quoted during the last century by many conservative politicians that "a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have."
The wisdom of those words must weigh heavily around the necks of Democrats and liberal pundits, who insist President Donald Trump is a "dictator" and a "threat to democracy" — baseless accusations that voters saw through and shrugged off.
Certainly, Trump has employed his executive privilege to bring the full resources of the federal government to bear on the left's radical agenda — mobilizing the National Guard to restore safety to the streets of our nation's capital, slashing waste and redundancy, reducing taxes for hardworking Americans and purging agencies of woke DEI policies.
The irony of it all, however, is that the very tools Mr. Trump is using to bludgeon the left were fashioned by Democrats.
The big government that progressives spent decades to build has been turned against them, rendering their bellyaching all the more empty.
In fact, President Trump has in many ways simply turned the liberal playbook on liberals, and with stunning success.
President Joe Biden attempted to run roughshod over the U.S. Supreme Court and foist his mass student loan cancellation plan on a reluctant public.
His administration threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that would not allow biological men to compete in women's sports.
Trump, by contrast, has begun to restore accountability to the student loan system and promised to dismantle the Department of Education — a bureaucratic mess that has failed in its mission to improve student outcomes.
President Barack Obama gave banks an ultimatum: close accounts for gun store owners or face heightened scrutiny. His Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repeatedly sought to rewrite the Clean Water Act to harass small businesses, ranchers and farmers.
Who could forget when he promised to shut down America's coal industry?
Trump, on the other hand, is working to slash red tape and put an "Open for Business" sign back on our country's doorstep.
"What about this president's statements that he will retaliate against his opponents?" one might ask. Sadly, that's hardly new, either.
FDR infamously sicced the IRS on his enemies, and LBJ used the CIA to spy on the Barry Goldwater campaign.
To be sure, the president takes joy in turning the knife, which diminishes his legacy of reform. His retaliation against opponents pushes the envelope of civil decorum and constitutional law, steering into a tit-for-tat hardball that's caused most Americans to become disenfranchised with both parties.
But don't forget how the left rejoiced when local district attorneys filed charges against the then-former President Trump.
Few on the left were crying foul about political weaponization when in 2023 the Supreme Court in my home state of Colorado upheld a decision that would have prevented Trump from appearing on the presidential ballot.
The left, for all its griping about this president, seems to have selective amnesia.
And many of the tactics it is quick to bemoan were created by its own.
What a different tune they sing now that those same arrows have been turned on them.
Democrats must be sorry to see their extreme agenda being shredded by President Trump and his administration.
Their vision of a nanny state as the great purveyor is rapidly slipping through their fingers, and it is being undone via the same executive fiat that they once championed.
The government that giveth, also taketh away.
There's a lesson here for Democrats: Ordinary, hardworking Americans still believe in the system of limited government espoused by our Founders.
They believe they shouldn't have to worry about getting mugged or shot when they leave their home.
They believe their tax dollars should be used to advance their interests, not political dogma.
And they believe that when those expectations go unmet, it's necessary to right the course.
President Trump is delivering on those beliefs and doing so with the very government that Democrats worked so hard to create.
This makes the lesson one that they won't forget — if they are wise enough to take heed.
The answer for all Americans is to reduce the size and scope of the federal government and return power to the people.
Ken Buck graduated from Princeton University in 1981 and the University of Wyoming Law School in 1985. He's worked for then Rep. Dick Cheney, R-Wyo., on the Iran-Contra Investigation; then became a prosecutor with the U.S. DOJ. In 1990, Ken joined the Colorado U.S. Atty’s. Office. There, he was Chief of the Criminal Division. Following 12 years with the U.S. Atty’s. Office, he was an executive with a construction company. Rep. Buck began his political career by being elected district attorney three times in Colorado (2004, 2008, 2012). In 2014, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Colorado's 4th Congressional Dist. Since leaving Congress in 2024, he started his own consulting business focusing on political strategy for business development and public affairs.