This isn’t the time for an ideological crusade. I expect to disagree with the Biden administration on many things, but I also look forward to working with the new president on a renewed national effort to beat this epidemic and get our economy — and life! — back on track. This is the challenge of our time. We did not choose it, but we must rise to it. And that means not wasting a lot of time on crazy stuff like trying to make the District of Columbia into a state just to create two new Democratic Senate seats or blowing up the Supreme Court.

I think we can do better on health care, but a government-run monopoly is not right for us. I think we can do better with our police, but defunding our police departments is crazy, and hamstringing good, proactive law enforcement endangers the most vulnerable communities in our state. I welcome and celebrate immigrants, but want an orderly, lawful immigration system in which everybody follows the same rules and the interests of our low-wage workers are considered. I support our public schools, but I think they need to do a better job, especially in those communities where families just don’t have the money to send their kids to private schools or move into better-performing school districts — neither of which they should ever have to do simply to get a decent education for their kids.

And I didn’t vote for Joe Biden, but I know most voters in Georgia did, as did most voters in the country. Talk of “mandates” is a media parlor game, but it would be a mistake — a tragedy — to destroy any opportunity for intelligent, bipartisan, consensus initiatives, especially in response to the ongoing national coronavirus emergency. It would be a mistake for Democrats to take this opportunity to launch a new culture war in Washington, as my opponent seems to want to do and many of his party’s leaders certainly want to do.