Pete Buttigieg is a 2020 Democratic candidate for president. He is the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN.

(CNN) In Iowa this Monday, Democratic voters begin to choose a new direction for our country. In weighing that decision, we have repeatedly been told — including recently in publications like the New York Times — that we must choose between incrementalism or radicalism, between our heads and our hearts. Either we tear down the entire system, or we accept whatever crumbs an intransigent GOP Congress might offer.

I reject that false choice — and the American people should too.

I've spent time in some of the reddest counties in America and in some of the bluest, and in places like Clarke County and Wapello County that voted for former President Barack Obama and then swung 30 points to vote for President Donald Trump. If you listen to those people, instead of pundits, you'll find they don't put much stock in ideological purity or "lanes" in a political primary.

The folks I've met tend not to measure the bigness of an idea by how many trillions it takes out of the US Treasury, nor the boldness of an idea by how many people it alienates. Instead, they measure an idea by the impact it will have on our everyday lives.

In the face of the burning challenges we face — from a climate crisis to tectonic shifts in our economy — Americans are hungry for real action. But they're also exhausted by endless partisan warfare. We can't rely on an old playbook or fight the same fights while the world burns and families fall further behind . In fact, the riskiest thing we could do is play it safe.

Our next president must break from the past without breaking the bonds between us. That's why as president, I won't nibble around the edges. I will turn the page on the broken politics of Washington, DC, and change the trajectory of our country for the better. And I'll do it by mobilizing, rather than polarizing the American people.

JUST WATCHED Buttigieg bumps up in our 2020 rankings Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Buttigieg bumps up in our 2020 rankings 02:35

That's the idea behind what I call " Medicare For All Who Want It ." Like Medicare For All, our plan would ensure that there's no such thing as an uninsured American, since everyone would have the option to buy into a public insurance option. But we would also respect the freedom of Americans who like the plans they've already got — including union members who fought hard for theirs — by letting people choose whether and when to join that public alternative.

In other words, we can achieve the biggest transformation in American health care in half a century — while also having the humility to appreciate that American families may know what's better for them than politicians in Washington. There's nothing remotely small or watered-down about that. It's just a smarter approach.

The same is true with our approach to tackling climate change. The plan our campaign has put forward would achieve a net-zero emission economy no later than 2050, which would be the biggest effort to avert climate catastrophe in our nation's history.

But the most aggressive goals mean nothing if we can't get any of it passed in the first place. That's why instead of making some Americans — like farmers — feel like just part of the problem, our plan invites every American to be a part of our climate solution. Through policies like funding farmers to capture carbon in soil, offering loan guarantees to retool automobile assembly lines and rebating the revenue from a carbon tax to American workers, we can revolutionize our climate future while simultaneously unifying Americans around this vital national project.

I'm also prepared to mobilize Americans around making higher education and lifelong learning accessible to everyone. I've proposed free public college for 80% of families and significant tuition assistance for more than 90% of all public college students. This would enable an estimated 10 million more students to graduate with high-quality college credentials in the next 10 years.

This would be the greatest reduction in the cost of higher education in generations, and several of my fellow Democratic competitors have praised and introduced similar plans in the past. But my administration won't drive away working-class families by subsidizing the children of the rich, especially when studies show nearly 40% of the benefits of free college for all go to the wealthy. By targeting assistance to students who need it most, we can invest in other priorities, from rebuilding our infrastructure to lifting people out of poverty.

Finally, we don't have to be incremental or incendiary when it comes to making our democracy worthy of the name. It is neither bold nor unifying for Democrats to simply accept Republican obstruction of overwhelmingly popular bills like gun safety legislation or confirm Cabinet secretaries and judicial nominees whose decisions will gut health labor and environmental protections for generations.

Get our free weekly newsletter Sign up for CNN Opinion's new newsletter. Join us on Twitter and Facebook

We can be transformational and bring people together by insisting on a democracy that hears our voices — which means an end to the Senate filibuster, a solution to big money in politics, and an end to the Electoral College. Such proposals often get some of the biggest applause when I campaign in the most conservative parts of the country.

It's possible to drive America forward without driving us apart. It's also possible to make real change without watering down our values. The American people do not have to settle when choosing the next president of the United States. And we shouldn't.