I hate the term "Joe Six Pack."  Just like I hate "the little housewife" or "the ball and chain" or any other gender/class stereotype.  I grew up just outside a mill town along the Monongahela River -- with kids whose parents worked in the mills and coke plants outside Pittsburgh.  It was actually the town portrayed in The Deer Hunter.  Some kids lived in trailers, some in four room "starter houses" that no one ever moved out of. 

I was the Jewish Girl and the lawyer's daughter and in some ways my life was very different -- so I was a bit of an outsider, but usually part of the gang - parties, sleepovers, crazy afternoons sneaking cigarettes in pine-paneled basement "family rooms."

I guess lots of those parents were what Sarah Palin called Joe Six Pack. 
But that's not who they were- who they are.  America is full of hard
working people who drink beer.  Bruce Springsteen portrays them all the time - much better than I could.  They are dads and husbands and
brothers and sons and they love their kids and their wives and, where I lived, the Steelers.  Many of those dads that I knew sent
their kids to college though - or to "the service" which paid their tuition, and the next generation did better economically - the American dream at work. 

I admired these people, and loved some of them.  When you spend lots of Saturday night sleepovers at girlfriends' houses you get to know their parents.  And, remembering those dads,  I do NOT understand how Sarah Palin can talk about "Joe Six Pack" and still say she's one of "the people."  It's like talking about "Polacks" and then claiming you're Polish.  The term is a colossal insult, the speaker setting herself above the folks she's describing.  For some reason, it's painful -- almost heartbreaking, to hear.  I know it's partially my
rage at her for claiming some special channel to working class
Americans while, it appears, cynically performing like a parody of them.  Her "Joe Six Packs" deserve better. 

Cynthia Samuels blogs at  <
Don't
Gel Too Soon where a version of this post also appeared.