Congratulations to any of you who root for the Seattle Seahawks. 

Being a former sportswriter, I know that a winning Super Bowl team is the one that executes its game plan better. On Sunday, the Seahawks’ plan appeared to be focusing on the younger members of the New England Patriots’ offensive line and pressuring their quarterback. The Patriots came close to figuring it out in the fourth quarter, but came up short.

There’s a lesson here for the forces trying to undo the mess that is the United States of America.

We have midterm elections in nine months. In special and off-year elections leading up to November, Democrats are far outperforming the norms. They’ve captured legislative seats in what were thought to be safe Trump districts and taken over municipalities previously run by Republicans.

Democrats are winning because most Americans are sick of this Trump crap. They’ve seen the U.S. embarrassed on the world stage, the economy slide, and the disgrace of mass arrests and extrajudicial murder by the human waste known as ICE.

But success can only be fueled by anger for only so long – although I suspect people are so angry that this feeling will last longer than usual.

Democrats – and the non-Democrats who can’t stand what’s happening to our country – need to come up with a game plan. One that will spell out what they plan to do to not only end the nightmare of Trump II, but to make life genuinely better for the 342 million-plus Americans who aren’t billionaires.

This plan should not be developed by a liberal think tank, or by the groups perceived as being on the left.

It should be developed by the people who it affects. What the Democrats need to do is travel the country listening to the problems people have – and then sounding out solutions.

Take healthcare, which until the Trump threat to democracy was probably the biggest problem people in this country faced.

I’m on Medicare, so healthcare costs are merely outrageous. For many people who aren’t 65, they border on catastrophic. The cost of taking care of yourself and your loved ones should not be an impediment to your financial viability.

The country might finally be ready for universal healthcare. Maybe Medicare for All. Maybe even something as advanced as Britain’s NHS.

But Democrats need to get their push for this from the American people. The ones who are paying outrageous premiums, who are committing huge chunks of their financial wherewithal to pay for prescriptions Having town halls throughout the country – forget the blue state/red state thing – is an important way to get a public impetus for improving healthcare. 

Pointing out that Trump is constantly proclaiming that he’s “two weeks away” from a great plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, drawing up a plan – maybe naming it for a place where a town hall came to a solid conclusion – and then getting just about every Democrat running for the House, the Senate and the statehouses to stand behind that plan. 

That’s what needs to be done to ensure Democrats are not just using rage bait. That it’s finally time to stop screwing around with people’s lives and start making those lives better.

And not just with healthcare. Infrastructure. Immigration. Women’s rights. Climate change. Campaign finance reform. Ending corruption.

This isn’t that original. In our lifetime, the Republicans have run on the Contract for America and Project 2025 – and as miserable as they are, they’ve executed them well. 

The New Deal is an example on our side – we’re still reaping the benefits of FDR’s vision and the impetus for real change. It led to the Democratic Party controlling Congress pretty steadily from the 1930s to the 1980s.

It’s a game plan. Just like what the Seahawks executed in Super Bowl LX. Only this time, both Pioneer Square and Copley Square – and every place in between – will find reason to celebrate.