"Average!?"

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

~ Inigo Montoya

(From The Princess Bride)

Forget for the moment that most political labels are meaningless… I would be willing to bet that most people presented with a wide range of "Conservative," "Moderate," and "Liberal" ideas would probably be unable to affix the proper label to the idea. There are plenty of studies that show that people who hate "Obamacare" love most of the provisions of the "Affordable Care Act" despite the fact that these are two names for the same thing!

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence like this demonstrating that while the largest number of Americans self-identifies as "Conservative" that without that handy-dandy label attached most of them cannot identify ideas that fall into the belief structure that they profess. For examples of this, one need only look at the community forums of last election cycle where the "TEA Party" activists showed-up in droves to spout the strangely discordant mantra "Keep your government hands off my Medicare." Ignore for the moment that Medicare is a government program, it is also a liberal idea and one that embodies the liberal concepts anathema to what the "TEA Party" claims to espouse.

I bring all this up because this weekend on the talking heads shows, one of the hosts made the statement that "liberals prefer those 'craft beers' more than 'average Americans.'" What the heck does that mean!?

Which version of "average" does he mean!? Should I be offended or impressed that he thinks that I (as someone who does not fit into the Liberal, Moderate, or Conservative boxes completely) is not "average!?" Since it is apparently not "average" to think for yourself, then I will take this as a compliment. Sad, isn't it?

Wherever you are today, I hope that you, and all of your friends, fall outside the 'average!'

Don Bergquist – February 02, 2015 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA