Republicans Always Demanded a Smaller Government, but Now Smaller Is Just Not Enough

by | Oct 15, 2025 | Opinions & Commentary

Photo by Andrew Winkler, Unsplash

Republicans Always Demanded a Smaller Government, but Now Smaller Is Just Not Enough

by | Oct 15, 2025 | Opinions & Commentary

Photo by Andrew Winkler, Unsplash

Equipped with Project 2025 when he came into office again, Trump has weaponized the idea of reducing government beyond any idea of merely reducing regulation.

For decades the mantra of the GOP has been “reduce the size of government.” Apparently we were all supposed to see our government as an oppressive ogre that threatened to swallow us lock, stock and front porch if we didn’t somehow rein it in.

Of course this was just the over-generalized echos of the party’s rich backers who wanted regulators off their backs so they could pollute, poison and rip off the general public at will. Just about every major corporate concern hated the very thought of entities like the FDA, EPA, OSHA, CPSC, CFPB and other agencies that represented a restraint on their activities.

This got so bad in the Reagan era that one of his campaign catchphrases was “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.'” Of course that was the rankest of BS.

When you look at any organization, especially one that has evolved over nearly 250 years, you are going to find problems, duplicative efforts, some waste and, yes, some fraud and abuse. But as with any group, those personnel operating in the latter categories are going to be a tiny minority. But that does not mean someone like Reagan then or Trump today will not try to paint the entire entity with that tiny brush. Of course, Trump and his racist fan club have been doing this for years with other groups, like on day one of his first campaign:

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”

This reversal of the ratio of good people to bad eggs is an important one to watch out for. You can test this out yourself anytime. Just observe how most people you actually engage in conversation are nice, personable and kind as their first take on things. Most people see the good in others as a reflection of themselves. And that’s why society at large is not a crater in the ground. The majority are simply good people.

But every once in a while you’re going to run into some “Karen,” male or female, that you want to get as far away from as possible. This is the one who sees the worst in everyone first, can’t see anything good and complains about everyone incessantly. If they’re not complaining about you, that’s because you’re in earshot. Once you’re gone the next person they speak to will get an ear full about you.

What does this have to do with government? A lot actually. When you get the Karen mentality in control, that visceral fear and loathing of others becomes the dominant ruling attitude. No one is good enough. No one measures up. Everyone is concerned with the attitudes of everyone else, who is on the outs and who isn’t. This makes for the worst possible production environment. And then those accusations of waste, fraud and abuse become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Those few folks with the “I’m the only one who matters” attitude actually want to be the only one, period. At their core they are mortally terrified of everyone around them, ally and enemy. So getting rid of people by any means possible becomes almost automatic for them.

Equipped with Project 2025 when he came into office again, Trump has weaponized the idea of reducing government beyond any idea of merely reducing regulation. For the last two full weeks the entire government has been forced to shutdown by a false premise that Democrats demanding the restoration of healthcare contributions to taxpayers is holding things up. That is false. Republicans are in full control of both Houses of Congress and the White House and can pass whatever budget they want whenever they want it. But the current shutdown serves another purpose: the wholesale destruction of entire government departments and the services they were providing—and which were paid for by our taxes.

Luckily for us at the time, Trump’s first administration was full of career professionals who took their oath to the Constitution seriously. But now the country no longer has that backstop. So when Trump signs off on another item in the Project 2025 checklist of destruction, there is no one there trying to talk him out of it. And since many of the government departments and functions Russell Vought and others are trying to destroy are the results of acts of Congress, dismantling them is illegal without Congressional approval. But the illegality of it all isn’t slowing these boys down. Their operating principle is probably best described in a quote from the late Henry Kissinger, “The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.”

Trump and company’s use of the unconstitutional is now almost as immediate as the illegal.

Once D.C. is cleared out, what will Trump do with all those big empty buildings? More Trump-branded hotels and resorts might be one guess…

Marty Kassowitz

Marty Kassowitz

Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.

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