OPINION:
Maybe it’s just the conservative in me, but when I heard Hillary Rodham Clinton say that “Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion so you can do more than just get by — you can get ahead and stay ahead,” my first thought was “Big government” (“Hillary Clinton announces 2016 bid, says she’s running for ’everyday Americans,’ April 12).
Was Hillary thinking of coal miners and their families in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky? She served in an Obama administration that is trying to destroy the livelihood of these hard-working families. Or was she thinking of family farmers in Iowa, who are contending with an Environmental Protection Agency that wants to regulate their irrigation ditches and stock ponds and the dust kicked up by their tractors? Was she referring to small, family-owned “wildcat” oil companies drilling oil and gas wells? Was she implying she would fight for a family-owned pizzeria whose proprietors believe their faith precludes them from supporting a gay “marriage”? Perhaps she would be a champion for a mom-and-pop gun shop in Texas.
These are everyday Americans. My guess is they don’t want a champion in Washington; they want Washington to leave them alone and let them prosper. I guess instead of Big Brother, Hillary is offering us Big Sister. No thanks.
RANDALL STEPHENS
Falls Church
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