So where's this average American I keep hearing about?

[otherlander]

I keep hearing about him but I haven't seen him. I've been told that he believes everything the media tells him. I'm not quite sure what his name is. Some people have referred to him as Joe Sixpack. Others say he's part of the Sheeple family. Has anyone seen him around?

[NMMNG]

1. I haven't

:shrug:

[whistle]

2. You can start looking here

<snip>
THE AVERAGE AMERICAN
The Extraordinary Search for the Nation's Most Ordinary Citizen
by KEVIN O'KEEFE


John Q Public. Plain Jane. The Average Joe. We think we know the type, but have we ever actually met the person? To be the perfectly average American is harder than it might seem: You must live within three miles of a McDonald's, and two miles of a public park; you must be better off financially than your parents, but earn no more than $75,000 a year; you must believe in God and the literal truth of the Bible, yet hold some views that traditional churches have deemed sacrilegious.

Equipped with his trusty Mr. Q, a notebook that he has compiled with over 1,000 facts about the Average American, Kevin O'Keefe has completed a tour of America in search of the sublimely ordinary, the man or woman who represents most definitively all that is average in our country.

In his travels from New York to Nevada, Pennsylvania to Hawaii, Kansas to Connecticut and beyond, O'Keefe talks business and pleasure with the proprietors of Average Joe and Jane Athletics, visits the polls on election day with the first candidate for the Average American party, bypasses both Peoria and Normal, Illinois (for, as he explains, they are not that normal), watches the magician Myklar the Ordinary wow the kids at a church in rural Maryland, and delivers a fascinating, often surprising, look into the history and culture of the common man and woman. At the end of the road he discovers that the Average American is, up close, rather extraordinary.

Kevin O'Keefe has held several high-profile management posts in the professional sports industry and has served as a media and marketing consultant for over a dozen Fortune 500 companies. Also a magazine reporter, he now runs his own marketing consulting firm. He lives in New York.

http://www.theaverageamerican.com/

[John Q. Citizen]

3. Average is that which no one quite is. As a mathimatical concept it has it's

place.

But average is a concept, not a person.

[zanne]

4. Getting "C" average grades....

In an academically average college in an average town. He has an average-looking girlfriend and they have average esteem for each other. They plan on having an average-size family and a dog. Their favorite color is average. (I'm on Vicodin, which is NOT average).

[HockeyMom]

5. My husband the "average" Republican voter

No, he is not a member of their minority Fundie base. He is the moderate, less government, fiscal Conservative. The so called old time Goldwater Republican. He could care less about banning abortion, gay marriage, or any other social issue. He doesn't like the Clintons, but he doesn't like the Bushes either.

He is also a Nam Vet. Yes, he has a Air Force Vet Bumper sticker, but he is calling the Iraq War, Vietnam on steroids. Besides the deaths and maiming of the troops, he is outraged about the COSTS this war is entailing.

His job has also been outsourced twice to India and he has gone nearly two yeas total without an IT job. He drove a taxi for a while at about $350 a week. He has a college degree and did everything right: college, marriage, house, two kids, etc. Just exactly what the Republican Party calls for. Yet, the American Dream has crashed. All the savings was erased with the downsizing. The house had to be sold because the mortgage could not be paid. He got another job in a different state and left us behind two and a half years ago. The proceeds from the house sale is paying the rent for my daughter and I. My meager ($300 a week) salary, having been mostly at stay at home Mom (advice? don't do it), has to pay all the other bills, utilities, food, clothing, etc. He is approaching retirement age with no savings for his "golden age".

Before anyone thinks this is a unique situation, or sob story, I can cite 2 other men we know in his age range, in the same field, who are in similar circumstances.

He voted for Bush the first time. He did not vote at all in the following election because you cannot mention Bush to him without a tirade occurring. Yet, he still refuses to vote for a Democrat. He would rather not vote AT ALL.

He is a Republican that the current Republican Party has left behind. I am sure he is not alone.