I commented after Barbara Boxer's motherly bitchslapping of Senator Inhofe that I could never be a politician, because I would have smacked Inhofe upside his pointy head while yelling "Whatthehellisthemattawithyou???" I don't know why, exactly, but that bit of musing led me to some other musing, about what brings me to Daily Kos and what kind of a Kossack I am. Which led me to further musing about what kind of Kossack other Kossacks are.
So, even though it's not really a demographic kind of poll that I want to take, (so technically I'm not stepping on DrSteveB's Tuesday toes, at least I hope I'm not), I am curious as to who we are, politically speaking, and why we're here.
Me: I'm a liberal arts major who went on to business school with the intent of going on from there to the non-profit sector. I worked in arts organizations for a while, then moved on to social justice, and now am in a direct-service organization (specifically, domestic violence).
Before 2000, I wasn't all that focused on politics. I showed up at the polls on (most) election days and did my thing, mostly voting Democratic, sometimes voting independent. Since 2000, I have become what I would call a pissed-off liberal voter.
I am most definitely not a political junkie. I am not a policy wonk, or a wonk of any other persuasion (unless you count 19th-century British fiction - I'm kinda wonky about that). I don't get off on polls or electoral math or any of that stuff; diaries and FP articles about all the electoral statistics glaze my eyes right over and send me into a waking coma. I am not into political nuance, for the most part, although I appreciate those who are and who write nice diaries and articles explaining all that stuff for attention-span-impaired people like me. I'm very much a bottom-liner. I don't have a whole lot of patience for "politics"; I want my elected representatives to do the right thing, fix what's broken, and remove (and hopefully punish) those who broke it, with a minimum of Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse bullshit just ticks me off.
So there you have it: a portrait of one Kossack. I come here because I appreciate the diversity here -- it's not too little diversity, and it's not too much diversity; it's just right. I come here because I find things out that I might not otherwise be aware of because they're not on my radar. I come here because people write things on every concievable subject, and many of those subjects interest me. And I come here because it's a haven from Republicans, and in my real life I have a few too many of those for comfort. Here, I can let my Democratic hair down with a minimum of blowback, and I appreciate that.