We all grow up with influences; Momma is a huge one for most of us.  Next week would be my mother’s birthday and I was thinking about her and how much she would have loved this primary season. A Woman!  A Black!  A Young Populist with Great Hair! Hey, her #1 reason for voting JFK was the way the wind blew through his hair.   She was the queen of drama. She was crazy.  She was the smartest woman I ever knew and the dumbest.  She was the strongest and the weakest.  She was married 5 times and each husband was worse than the one before, she liked them young and dumb and poor and abusive (okay the last was not so bad, but he is a crazy liberal hippy and only about a year older than me.)  She taught me some great life lessons.  And one of the best lesson she taught? Acceptance.  Of others and myself.

I always look to my family for insights into the pulse of the country. My extended family is close and it is huge. My family is very, very diverse; politically, economically, educationally, ethnically and religiously. The only time my family ever agreed in high numbers and were completely wrong was the 2004 election, which was why I had no doubt there would be a big Kerry win.  Anyhow, what does my family insight tell me about the Evangelical vote this midterm? I have no idea. It depends which kind of Fundamentalist are more common. I would like a sense of which kind you-all are more familiar with.  

I am going to assume the group the right is most concerned about now are the ones Rove call the "nuts". You know, the ones who might care about a sexual predator and the "Tempting Faith" book, or everything might be that amoral Clinton's fault.

I have 2 bona-fide nuts in my family:  my sister and my sister-in-law.

As with Hunter's diary, I also planned this weekend to approach the the recent trolling fights.  As with Hunter I do not speak for anyone who is charge, and although my postings are few I am a long time user. Hunter's advice is okay, because rules are rules, but I have additional qualifications to mediate between the troll-ee and troll-er, which are vastly superior to Hunter, so therefore my advice is sounder.  You naturally would like to know my credentials.

I compulsively read Dkos and very, very, very seldom do post or comment, mostly because you all intimidate me with all your knowledge, debate skills and education. Be that as it may, my head exploded from the race inspired issues under discussion this week and I really want to put in my 2 cents.  Since my brains have totally leaked out, please forgive in advance my long and disjointed rant.

I have been sitting here for days reading Kos and going through a huge variety of emotions.  I feel EVERYTHING, most people here feel.  I think everything most people here think.  All without concern for conflict or rational thought.  So...where does that leave me?  Back to my large, diverse, extended family, which are like a cross between afternoon school specials and documentaries, for lessons I think I learned throughout the years.  This week my father-in-law is on my mind the most.  He was the greatest influence on my life as a father figure for the 5 years he was in my life. I wish he were still here.  I have never before or since met a more caring, compassionate or wise man.  To gloss over his story he was a German Jew who was lucky (?) enough to be picked up on Crystalnaught, sent to a concentration camp and had a family with enough influence to get him out early and sent on to Shanghai, where he spent the next 9 years of his life.  The rest of his family perished.  

I would like to tell you why I truly believe Kerry will win and actually win big. I am sorry to bore you, but I feel a little of my background would explain why I think my view is a little different from most on here.  I do not consider myself exactly stupid, but I am uneducated.  I grew up in a poor working family.  I was married at 16, had 3 kids and we worked hard to educate the kids...school-wise, common sense-wise and world-wise.  Because of our early socio-economic problems and our young married ages my husband and my sphere of influence consists mainly of family.