I've heard a lot about the "average" person during my professional lifetime. I've also heard from and about the "average" reader enough that I now contribute to more than one literacy fund.
This year has been above average in the deployment of the "average" descriptor.
We all know — or think we know — what the "average" American is all about, and Sarah Palin, we're told on the average of once every 15 minutes, is it.
The notion that Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, is the embodiment of the average person is laughable on its face. There are only 50 state governors in a U.S. population of 305,476,000. I'm no math major, but I'm pretty sure that's not average. The likelihood that you as one of those 300 plus million will ever be governor of your state or nominated for the vice presidency of any party — much less a major one — is pretty much 300-plus million to one every four years.
You've got better odds of hitting the lottery or hooking up with a member of a royal family.
And even though Palin took a much-ballyhooed pay cut when she became governor of Alaska, she knocks down $125,000 a year as the state's chief executive. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Alaskans recorded a median — not average but half above, half below — income of $54,056 a year for a seven-person family (the size of hers). Then, of course, how many average Americans ever had a benefactor drop $150,000 on them to go buy clothes? Or, for that matter, been invited to appear on "Saturday Night Live"?
To be fair, neither Palin nor her GOP image-makers concocted the "average person" myth. They are just the latest in a long line to push it. I've heard that "I'm just an average guy" line from candidates for everything from governor to constable. It is the grandmother of all political clichés, and the only thing remarkable about it is that people buy it. Average golfers don't win the Masters; average baseball teams don't win the World Series. Average workers don't win promotions. Only in politics is "average" considered virtuous.
We all think we know what "average" means, but defining "average" can be quite slippery. Republican presidential nominee John McCain took a lot of grief for his ill-advised wisecrack defining rich as making more than $5 million a year, but the humor says a lot about his socio-economic environment. "Average" in the economic stratosphere inhabited by a U.S. senator married to a beer heiress is different from the average experience of most people. Sure, Barack Obama and Joe Biden are far from average, but they aren't claiming to be.
Though there is no official definition of middle class — a term often used interchangeably with "average American" — $4.9 million a year is way above even an informal notion of what an average income is. Sociologist Teresa Sullivan, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan, told U.S. News and World Report that middle income earners in the United States make between $46,000 and $54,000 a year.
You can slice data all day long to get to "average" and still find a good definition elusive. Average for what? Average for college-educated whites? Average for college-educated Latinos? African-Americans? Single parents? Married couples? High school dropouts?
Maybe we ought to be asking ourselves this question: Do you want the people who are only "average" running the country? Do you really want that cigarette sucking loudmouth on the next stool running health policy? Or that "average" slug in the next cubicle running foreign policy?
Don't you want people making the big decisions to be above average?
Despite the posturing to the contrary, political people are far from average. Running for office at any level requires a degree of self-confidence — some would say inflated ego — that few have. It means long hours asking total strangers for their money and their votes. I admire them for doing it even if I can't agree with all of them or all their issues.
This average person nonsense is just that. We should want leadership that has aspirations and vision beyond average — even if we could define the word.
Arnold Garcia is editorial page editor of the Austin American-Statesman. E-mail: agarcia AT statesman.com.