Let’s all take a deep breath here. From the first impeachment trial, the grueling presidential campaign, the constant ruckus on Twitter, the long election result battle and the legal proceedings derived from it, armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and the partisan frenzy that is Washington D.C., it is hard not to be politically exhausted. But rest assured, there may be a solution to your weariness: Joseph R. Biden.

    When the sun rose on Jan. 20, Donald Trump was the president of the United States. After a long day of scaled-back ceremony, when that sun set in the west, a peaceful transition of power had occurred. One thing that has maintained the integrity of our country from century to century is an orderly and honest election, and an execution of the citizen-provided mandate to lead. While the sun hung high in the sky, Biden stepped up and gave a speech that revolved around calling Americans together in a show of unity. Can’t hurt, right? 

After all, the country seems to be the most polarized it’s been in modern history. In a grand, but gradual process, a hodge-podge of divisive factors has led us to this moment where it can be hard to understand or even see others’ perspectives. Social media and cable news have driven both sides of the political spectrum farther to the extremes, and it nears a point where sides can’t even establish a common set of facts. The media giants feed you what you want to hear, and try to scare you about the other side just enough that you’ll tune in the next night. Compound all this with a global pandemic that’s already claimed 400,000 American lives, and you’ve got yourself something of a national crisis, or at least a smattering of crises.

 So no matter what side of the political aisle you choose to sit on, I think we can all agree that our country could use a dose of normalcy. Calls to drain the swamp have echoed through the corridors of political rhetoric for decades, “Bring in the outsider!” they cried. I’m here to argue that an insider might do the trick. A swamp is a fully functioning ecosystem, let the man who navigated it for 46 years have a go at it. After a few years (what was it, four?) of presidential norms and traditions being broken, it might help to have that return to order. Instead of turning the television up to hear what the 45th president might surprise you with, turn it down because Joe Biden is boring you. Instead of all caps and exclamation points in your twitter, take comfort in the fact that sports news or memes riddle your timeline.

This country is united in one large sense, one shared goal: to end the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s a big issue that extends past traditional party lines, and poses a clear and imminent threat to the American people. It’s beneficial to everyone to make sure we can distribute a reliable COVID-19 vaccine, starting with the elderly and medical workers, before making its way down. This is Biden’s opportunity to unite the country in a real way. Just like the American people rallying behind the commander in chief in a time of war, we face a common enemy here and now. 

If you’re worried that things will change too quickly under a Democrat-controlled federal government, remember that you pretty much need 60 Senate votes, meaning all Democrats and 10 Republicans, to get anything major done. Worried that we’ll have complete partisan gridlock for the next four years? Biden has worked with Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) for 30 years in the senate.

So let’s hope for the best. Let’s do our darndest to move past this era of tribalistic politics. Let’s rally behind an effective pandemic response. Let’s all slow down, zoom out and try to return to that American normalcy that’s made us a world leader in democracy. The imperfect federal government will hum along and sometime, let’s say in the next year, you might just go through your whole day without thinking about politics, and that will be a return to normal.