Reply #70: Excuse me. I think Jan 6th is ALL about reforming the election system...

[Eye_on_prize]

...which you say is also your goal. What better way reform the election do you propose? None that I've heard. The Jan 6th challenge - with or without Kerry stealth action - accomplishes a number of critical things at once:
1) it effectively calls national attention quickly to the massive amount of documentation and legal evidence of fraud that has been accumulated to date,
2) it does so by using precisely the very Constitutionally prescribed forum for doing so, that being the certification (or noncertification) of electors on Jan 6th.
3) the fact that this has NEVER happened before (where US Senator joins the challenge) means it is..hello?.. historic, so much harder to ignore, esp. after the F9/11 clip being widely registered in everyone's collective awareness,
4) it enters permanently into the Congressional record the compelling (I think) evidence, prima facia and otherwise, that has been garnered to date.

I list these accomplishments because it helps me appreciate the importance of this more myself, and also to ask people trashing the idea of standing up on Jan 6, what their alternative actions would be, and precisely when would be the 'better time' or 'better place' to challenge election fraud OH and/or get REAL election reform out of the Republican controlled Congress? Naysayers have posted a LOT of ink simply repeating over and over how 'oh, this'll never work, blah blah' without any whiff of another strategy or time-line or credible work plan for more effectively registering our concerns in a compelling and timely manner.

Please either elaborate your 'someday' strategy and enlighten us, or at least think up something more original than "oh, this'll never work", or "it's political suicide" (try telling Conyers that), or "Oh, this will destroy the Dems for 20 years".

Yes there are certainly some risks to the Jan 6th challenge, as there are ALWAYS risks in these kind of struggles. And there will certainly be another whole set of risks to bedevil any alternative (as yet unspecified and unarticulated) alternative proposal for forcing this issue onto the agenda in a timely way, as in before 2006 elections.

The reality is this: Jan 6th is happening, and there is no turning back at this point, so magnifying the risks and playing on our fears is not helpful at this point. We need some serious momentum underway for reforming elections pronto, and Jan 6th is none to soon to get started.

I believe many at DU are very aware the gravity and significance of this move, and, on balance, still feel it is by far our best shot.

Here are some 'givens' I see:
•given all that we now know evidence-wise,
•given that there is safety in numbers and that alternative would abandon Conyers to twist in the wind with one or two other black Congresspeople (can u say 2000 redux), to be easily ignored and dismissed as 'a few wackos' by MSM,
•given that 'playing nice' on Jan 6th at this point would most certainly be seen as weaknes, as not really believing our own evidence, and used against us to cast irrational spells of 'doubt' on the evidence we've fought so hard to gather.
•given the Dems minority status (i.e. an uphill battle any way you slice it), and
•given what the Constitution spells out Jan 6th as the appropriate time and place for challenging election fraud.

Given all this, I personally feel a sacred responsibility to John Conyers and to my country to encourage as MANY of his collegues to stand up with him in solidarity on Jan 6th as possible.