Many Americans are mourning Senate passage of the Debt Slavery Act of 2005, commonly known as the Bankruptcy Bill.

As Mother Jones said, "Don't Mourn, Organize!"

Let's stop the Debt Slavery Act dead in the House.

What's that I hear out there? Is someone insisting, "We can't stop Tom DeLay's brutal legislative steamroller!"

The hell we can't.

House Republicans are already running for their lives over Social Security privatization. When Tom DeLay ordered them to hold town hall meetings on privatization in February, two-thirds of them flatly refused. When George Bush took Air Force One for a Bamboozlepalooza rally in Alabama - Alabama - six of the seven House Republicans announced they suddenly had to attend urgent Congressional hearings!

It's only going to get worse for House Republicans, because George Bush is determined to march them off the cliff for privatization, even though each new poll shows ever-greater opposition to Bush's plan. Every House member is up for election in 2006, compared to just one-third of the Senate. And the voters who turn out most reliably in off years (like 2006) are Social Security recipients!

House Republicans are also reeling from the growing pressure on Tom DeLay, whose numerous scandals continue to generate headlines and outrage - even from conservatives like David Brooks. And DeLay's brazen and cruel exploitation of Terri Schiavo's life in his desperate effort to save his own political life has outraged the vast majority of Americans and turned them solidly against DeLay and the rest of the Republican Congress.

Meanwhile, on the House Democratic side, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to support this bill. In the Senate, a significant chunk - 5% - of the Democratic caucus represents MBNA (Delaware Senators Joe Biden and Tom Carper). In the House, that figure is 0%. So there is no good reason for even one House Democrats to whore his or her vote.

Of course, there are a few corporate whores in the Democratic caucus. But of the 39 members of the House New Democratic Coalition, only 18 begged Speaker Hastert to bring the bill up for an immediate vote, and only 2 other Democrats joined them. I'm pretty sure those 20 Democrats could be persuaded to switch their positions if Democratic activists (including Democrats.com chapters) did some grassroots work in their districts, perhaps even threatening to run primaries against them.

The issue of debt slavery unites all Democrats across ideological lines. Progressives are naturally livid - but even centrists like the New Republic-ans are outraged:

This magazine and multiple other opinion outlets on the center-left have written at length about how the bill in question is a truly contemptible piece of legislation... The only way a congressman [sic] could possibly support it is through a craven and reflexive willingness to do the bidding of big business... [Supporting this bill] could set back the cause of moderates within the party for months, if not years. It really is a colossal, inexcusable mistake.

It also unites Democrats with moderates - and lots of conservatives too. Conservatives claim economic liberty is the absolute foundation of America. So how can these conservatives possibly support debt slavery?

With powerful support across the ideological spectrum, we can absolutely win this battle at the grassroots.

Let's start with the progressive blogosphere. We can count on Josh Marshall (and Harvard Prof. Elizabeth Warren) at TalkingPointsMemo, who are kicking Bush's ass on Social Security. Atrios is fuming. So are the folks at DailyKos, DemocraticUnderground, and everywhere else Dems hang out.

But that's just the start. A fantastic effort at http://politology.us/ is reaching out to moderates, libertarians, and conservatives to make this a full-spectrum campaign.

While we reach out to the bloggers, we need to enlist large grassroots organizations like Moveon, True Majority, People for the American Way, Working Assets, Campaign for America's Future, Common Cause, etc. We need the unions - all of them. We need the churches too - because every religion cares about the poor. We need feminist groups like NOW and the Feminist Majority; ethnic groups like the NAACP, Urban League, and Council of La Raza; veterans groups like the American Legion and the VFW; mainstream groups like the League of Women Voters and the PTA.

In other words, we should get every group in America involved and create a national firestorm like Congress has never seen.