Ready to rumble?

“I don’t think I can get out of bed for another week,” one friend told me.

Another friend was trying to figure out what English-speaking countries still allow Americans to immigrate. And one of our commenters, who lives in Wisconsin, was so devastated by the loss of Russ Feingold that she wanted to pack up and move.

Myself? I’m feeling oddly energized. “Oh, come on,” I told them. “It’s gonna be fun.” Because it is.

Because it’s finally here, our worst nightmare. It’s all out in the open, where they can’t hide, and the battle is joined.

The People’s House has yet again been taken over by the Party of Big Business, and this time, they’re on steroids. They’re going to push policies that will not only make the Bush era look kinder and gentler, they’ll probably put us into a longer, deeper depression.

I’ve read dozens, maybe hundreds of postmortems in the past few days, and I came away with the distinct impression that overly-intellectual progressives are robotically talking themselves into a depression spiral.

When I find myself over-thinking, I remind myself of the late Fred Shero, coach of the Philadelphia Flyers during the glory days of the Broad Street Bullies. There was a tough loss, and the sportswriters hammered the owl-like, enigmatic Shero. Why didn’t the Flyers win this game?

“Well,” said Shero, “the other team got the puck in the net more times than we did.” And then he got up and left the press conference.

Regardless of the numerous political issues that aligned for this loss, the fact remains: They got the puck in the net more than we did. How do we fix that?

Right now, there’s an obvious move on in both parties to cut Social Security by raising the retirement age. Now that the Republicans control the national purse strings, you can be sure they’ll try to take it a step further.

And here’s what I want to know: Are you ready to fight? Because it’s going to take a lot more than signing an online petition, or arguing in blog comments. It’s even going to take more than money.

The only way we’ve ever gotten significant change in this country is by scaring the people in charge.

So what I’m wondering is, are you going to stay in bed, or are you going to fight for your beliefs?

Does Social Security matter enough to you to take part in a sit-in at your senator’s office? Because I guarantee you, the other side will do it.

Are you willing to bring your lawn chairs and block an intersection at rush hour, carrying signs and protesting so you get on the Live at 5 news?

Are you willing to be confrontational in public meetings to get your point across?

Are you willing to knock on your neighbors’ doors and ask them over for coffee and donuts to hear about what the Social Security cuts will do?

This is what the opposition does. This is what raises the profile for your cause, because the average voter doesn’t read blogs, doesn’t belong to activist groups and is too busy to become hyper-informed, the way we are.

I’m not saying online organizing doesn’t help. Obviously, it does. But it’s not enough.

But cheer up: It’s not over until we say it’s over.