Like many a news junky, I spent much of last week eagerly awaiting the media reaction to President Obama’s first State of the Union.  I wondered, would Paul Krugman pronounce that the speech saved or buried any hope for Main Street?  I confess a morbid fascination for the spectacle of all the little heads in their little boxes frothing at each other over whether Obama dug the Democrats out from the Massachusetts “debacle.” Even more morbidly, I hoped for some Joe-Wilson-esque bad behavior from the extreme crazies, just because it proves what everyone already knows about them. I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning again waiting for Jon Stewart’s take. The anticipatory tizzy was almost as good as waiting for the next season of Dexter (Will Dexter without Trinity be like Air America without Bush?)

And then I came to my senses.

Talk is cheaper than oil these days and it’s unfortunately nearly as profitable. I think we all need to keep that in mind as we stand ‘round our real or virtual water coolers this morning, listening to that coworker who doesn’t even bother to vote but once every four years. Network nabobs get paid to tell us what we already think we know. And what does contemplating the meaning of the President’s every word, pause and gesture, scoring his eloquence, obsessing over the Republican reaction, and wringing our hands over how it played to the electorate in Nevada, really do to help? Nothing.

And it risks drawing us into a cynical trap. Here’s some data worth keeping in mind as the SOTU post mortem proceeds: in a post-election poll in Massachusetts, by a margin of 47% to 32%, AFL-CIO voters, (who actually helped elect Beauhunk Brown!) felt the Democrats had accomplished too little.  ACCOMPLISHED too little. Everyone is griping that Obama hasn’t done enough. That’s, um, a sign. I believe our goal as good progressives for the next three years should be to get our president and his party in trouble for doing too much.

How? The best I can come up with is that we keep doing what we have been, just more of it.  Read all your emails from Fuse, MoveOn and Save Darfur and 1Sky and send those letters and sign the petitions and forward them.  Don’t unsubscribe Organizing for America. Get out to a rally or two . Make another donation to a progressive group that’s working on the ground in your community to organize people around their best intentions and altruistic impulses. Broke because you’re out of work? Spend a chunk of your unenjoyment volunteering for one or more of those groups – they need all kinds of help (including blogging).

And since it’s fair to assume that many of you reading this do all the above and more, maybe it’s time to put some extra work into getting a multiplier effect for our efforts. Let’s hold those watercooler pundits’ feet to the fire.  Let’s get them on our lists, at our rallies, dialing for our phonebanks, donating to our organizations, becoming fans of our Facebook pages, haranguing our electeds every chance they get. And not just them, but anyone we know who talks a good talk, but perhaps needs a little encouragement, enticement, inducement, or guilt tripping to walk the walk. You know you know someone who means well, but just needs a little push: the “Sure I voted for him, but you know, it’s just biz as usual in DC” types. We elected the guy. Now more than ever he needs our help (I just got the email two minutes ago: “Dear Darrin… I cannot do it alone…  Thank you for making it possible, President Barack Obama.” C’mon folks, he’s begging us!)  

So, while Glenn Beck keeps busy comparing the first-ever State of the Union address by an African American to one of Castro’s four-hour lectures, and Rachel Maddow poo-poos it for lip servicing the middle class, and NPR presents a thoughtful analysis of what it means for the future of pea-patches, the rest of us can congratulate and thank the president for another fine speech, and then get on with the important work: making sure he knows that while we still like his rhetorical flare, we’ll all be a lot happier when the Democrats get busy and give us a reason to regain our hope.