For many, the new year began rather gloomily with the reminder that, in just a few short days, the nation will have a new president, who slid into office without the backing of a majority of American voters and with the help of the Russian government, if you believe U.S. intelligence sources.

While there will be no “do-over” for the U.S. presidential election, we must come to terms with the fact that Republican Donald J. Trump — a man with no previous political experience who would rather spend his time pontificating in bursts of early morning tweets than to learn what’s really going on in daily intelligence briefings — is about to be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.

Mr. Trump may be asleep, but it’s time for the rest of us to wake up and get moving. If there’s anything our long and storied — and valiant — experience in this nation has taught us, it is: “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

Already, we see the fights ahead, starting with the people Mr. Trump has selected for his cabinet. Most are paradoxical, to be kind, and clear and present dangers, to be real.

He has nominated Betsy DeVos, an anti-public education person, to be U.S. secretary of education; Andrew Puzder, a restaurant executive who has opposed efforts to raise the minimum wage for workers, as labor secretary; Congressman Tom Price of Georgia, who opposed Obamacare at every turn and sought to privatize Medicare, as head of health and human services; and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who for years has been hostile to federal voting rights and civil rights legislation, as the nation’s attorney general, charged with enforcing such laws.

We also know of Mr. Trump’s pledge to repeal Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, under which more than 20 million people who previously didn’t have health insurance have been able to obtain coverage.

On Tuesday, the new Congress was sworn in. And the first act of the House Republicans was to try to eliminate an independent ethics panel, leaving a House committee in charge of overseeing any possible ethics violations among their own members.

The change was scrapped after an outburst from angry constituents and, ironically, an even angrier outburst via Twitter from President-elect Trump who questioned why such a move was a priority.

On Tuesday night, national NAACP President Cornell W. Brooks and five others were arrested during a sit-in at Sen. Sessions’ office in Mobile, Ala., where they protested his nomination as attorney general.

The fights have only begun. We urge all Virginians and all Americans who stand for justice, health care equity, public education, a living wage, civil rights, and equality for all to make their voices heard when Mr. Trump’s nominees come up for confirmation hearings and a vote in the U.S. Senate.

We also urge you to flood your congressional representatives with phone calls, emails and snail mail to keep health care available and affordable for Americans.

We will be watching to see what actions Virginia’s representatives in Washington take to block efforts to dismantle Obamacare and to oppose President-elect Trump’s nominees who would roll back progress in civil rights, workers’ rights and education.

We expect Sen. Tim Kaine, the defeated Democratic vice presidential candidate, to take a leading role in stopping the Republicans from demolishing the gains of the last eight years. And we expect Sen. Mark Warner, also a Democrat, to do all he can to ensure that American progress is not halted by those whom Mr. Trump would put into his cabinet.

President Obama will give his farewell address to the nation on Tuesday, Jan. 10. While he will be leaving office Friday, Jan. 20, we will still be here.

Let’s get ready to rumble.