U.S. Rep. Ken Buck announced this week he has decided to not seek reelection. A lot, obviously, goes into a decision of that magnitude, and the practical political considerations, such as the likelihood of the threat of a successful primary, are not the least of them.

But whatever his ultimate motivations, the deed is done, and Mr. Buck made some rather poignant observations on his way out the door that are worthy of digestion. In his video announcement (as such things are done that way nowadays) and in a piece he wrote for National Review, Buck laid out the current American state of political affairs rather adroitly and accurately. His message, deeply paraphrased, is basically this: he says, look, our country is facing some pretty major problems, most of them caused by liberal-left policies advanced by the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party is too confused at the moment to be able to help.

Buck, as I’ve written before, is something of a conundrum in modern American politics. He is a founding member of the Freedom Caucus, one of the eight who decided to vote out Kevin McCarthy as speaker, and occasionally so far-right, on issues like antitrust, that he loops all the around to the left. But he has also been consistent on traditionally conservative matters like spending, debt and law and order, and has proven unwilling to suffer the foolishness of populist excess that has too often come to define the Republican Party of late.

Much of that came through in his parting statements this week. Buck made clear the perils the country is facing because of liberal Democratic management – crushing and unsustainable debt, the imminent insolvency of Social Security and Medicaid, the chaotic situation at the border, inflation and the general breakdown of law and order, among other ills. He especially earns credit for being a consistent voice raising the tocsin over the scope of government spending and the implications that holds for the nation’s future.

Stay up to speed: Sign-up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

But the highlights of his closing comments are his clear-eyed and damning observations on the current state of his own party.

Said Buck in the video address: “Americans are rightfully concerned about our nation’s future and are looking to Republicans in Washington for a course correction. But their hope for Republicans to take decisive action may be in vain. Our nation is on a collision course with reality, and a steadfast commitment to truth – even uncomfortable truths – is the only way forward.”

His piece in National Review hits even harder: “A growing number of Republican politicians are eroding their own credibility, and simultaneously undermining the entire GOP brand, by continuing to breathe life into the lies surrounding the 2020 election.”

Buck points out that the left “have spent decades promoting falsehoods about the consequences of our spending policies, expanding the role of the federal government and about the fragile state of Social Security and Medicare… Meanwhile, Washington Republicans have been too busy rewriting history to be bothered with tackling our nation’s problems.”

Just so, and kudos to Buck for elucidating that bitter truth.

The only major missing element in Buck’s epistle is an addendum warning of the creeping isolationism that seems to be infecting the populist wing of the GOP. The new speaker, Mike Johnson has recently signaled his support for Ukraine military aid, and that’s a good thing. But too many in the GOP caucus seem to sport an oddly unrealistic view of foreign relations when it comes to that beleaguered country.

It is a mistake to view the Hamas-Israeli war, the Russia-Ukraine war, and even China’s belligerence toward Taiwan, individually in vacuums. Russia, China, and Iran – and to a lesser but no less dangerous extent, North Korea – represent an anti-Western axis that is in some ways more dangerous for its disparity than previous threats posed during the Cold War by the Communist bloc. Those, in either party, who cannot see the parallels between Iran-Hamas’ attack on Israel, Russia’s invasion and China’s ambitions are making the same mistakes fundamentally as those whom Buck called out for failing to recognize the similarities between the Jan. 6 riot and the summer 2020 left-wing riots.

I have not always seen eye-to-eye with Ken Buck, and there have been episodes and positions during his tenure with which one can legitimately quarrel. But in his statements announcing and explaining his intention to not seek reelection, he has done what he counseled his party to do and spoken some uncomfortable truths, which his party would be wise to heed. Political epitaphs don’t get much better than that.

Kelly Sloan is a political and public affairs consultant and a recovering journalist based in Denver.