As a seasoned champion of free markets, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul understands the hard work that goes behind running a small business. He also grasps the dangers many small businesses face from onerous government regulations.
Raul is a ranking member of the United States Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship. In that role, he praises certain Kentucky small businesses on a weekly basis.
“I think it is important because people have heard of Toyota or General Motors or Ford, but they maybe haven’t heard of the mom and pop bakery in small town Kentucky,” Paul stated. “It takes a lot of work in a small town with a small business to make a living and to make a profit.”
One business that Paul’s office highlighted is the Our Best Restaurant located in the town of Smithfield, Kentucky, which has a population of 106 people.
Our Best Restaurant markets itself as a restaurant with “good country-style cooking” and “friendly and efficient service.”
According to Julia Benbrook of Spectrum News 1, the restaurant’s “menu specialties include fried chicken, pork chops and homemade desserts. Those items, combined with their business model, seem to attract quite the crowd. “
This is a family-owned business that has been run by three generations of members of the Kay family.
“Using Kay, my stepmother’s recipes from her mother and grandmother, they opened the little Our Best Restaurant down the street in August of 1990,” stated owner Kenny Way. “The original menus were on the Our Best flower sacks. Our Best was the premiere flour mill across the street.”
The restaurant was initially opened by the late Kenneth Way and his wife Kay. Currently, his son Kenny Way, grandson Aric Way and his wife Brittany Way are carrying out the family legacy by running their family business and maintaining its operations.
“Someone asked my dad one time, Kenneth, what do you know about the restaurant business? He said I really don’t know anything. I remember him saying, all I know is I’m in the people business, I just happen to make food,” Kenny Way stated.
These are the many stories of small businesses nationwide. By no means, are these privileged or politically-connected institutions. All told, any type of regulations imposed on these humble businesses could be potentially fatal.
Liberty conservatives should take it upon themselves to become champions of the working class and small businesses. These are the people who usually get crushed by regulations and inflation. As a result, they should be the principal constituencies that liberty conservatives target.
