10 of our top columns this week: ICYMI
In today's fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we've started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week's top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.
— USA TODAY Opinion editors
1. Texas lawsuit was the last straw. I'm leaving the Republican Party: Former NH GOP chair
By Jennifer Horn
"For the past five years, however, I have found myself fighting for what I thought were the principles of my party in the face of the ever-deteriorating character and integrity of party representatives. They have revealed their impotence and decrepitude as they have fallen, one by one, at the feet of the most corrupt, destructive and unstable president in the history of our country."
2. The Jill Biden furor is about more than titles. It touches on gender, race and civility.
By Steven Petrow
"Many news organizations, including USA TODAY, reserve the title "Dr." for medical doctors because that's Associated Press style. But the rest of us aren't bound by AP style. Jill Biden is usually addressed in public with the “Dr.” honorific, and other documents generally include it before her name. She has earned it. We should use it. We should respect her."
3. Millions of Americans face eviction amid COVID-19: 'I have no idea what to do.'
By Suzette Hackney
"Manny and her children, Amelia, 13, Audrina, 12, and Robert Jr., 3, are now bouncing around from cheap motels to friends' couches because emergency shelters are overflowing with others in need. They are trying to survive on her unemployment benefits: $218 per week."
4. My road to full recovery from COVID-19 — like America's — will be long and difficult
By Lorenzo Sierra
"Like so many, my symptoms started off mild. I was in Washington, D.C., visiting family and tested negative before travelling from my home in Arizona. But just over a week after my diagnosis, I was being taken off of a ventilator, with the medical team asking me basic questions."
5. Reality check for Trump's fantasies: Judges aren't his pawns on election lawsuits.
By Saundra Torry
"Twice this week alone, the Supreme Court dealt major blows to efforts by Trump’s allies to overturn the vote in states won by President-elect Joe Biden. On Tuesday, in a single sentence, the court — which includes three justices appointed by Trump — rejected the plaintiffs’ call to stop Pennsylvania from finalizing its vote total that showed Biden the winner by more than 80,000 votes."
6. Front of the COVID-19 line: How to ensure VIPs don't receive special treatment
By The Editorial Board
"Life-and-death situations bring out the best in some people and the worst in others, particularly those who would emulate the men who tried to elbow aside the women and children when the Titanic was sinking and the lifeboats were filling. The coronavirus has already taken a disproportionate toll on lower-income people who can't work from home, and blatant favoritism in treatment is a recipe for social unrest."
7. Can 'Don the Con' match 'Grover the Good'?
By Michael Medved
"If Donald Trump persists in present plans to mount a vengeful comeback campaign in 2024, he’ll find his name forever linked with one of his less-celebrated predecessors: Grover Cleveland, the only president to manage the unique feat that Trump seems determined to repeat. After losing a close bid for re-election in 1888, Cleveland came roaring back to power four years later, qualifying as both our 22nd and 24th president."
8. Barr shielded Trump from Congress, Mueller and the law, but couldn't save him from voters
By Paul Rosenzweig
"Nearly 500 years ago, King Henry VIII sacked his most loyal courtier, Thomas Cromwell, removing him from office and then beheading him. Today, Attorney General William Barr suffers the same Cromwellian fate, his sycophantic fealty to President Donald Trump rewarded by being tossed onto the pile of discarded Trumpian supporters."
9. My college student's transformation provides best argument for abolishing death penalty
By Jennifer Lackey
"Peeples was in his 20s when he committed the crime that put him on death row. But his ability to change makes it clear that the Supreme Court ruling in Roper v. Simmons, which made it unconstitutional to impose the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of 18, should be extended to adults."
10. COVID-19 vaccine must be safe, equitable for Black community. Black doctors are working to ensure it
By Leon McDougle
"As president of the National Medical Association — an organization of Black physicians — I see how the development of a vaccine that the majority of Black America doesn't trust (according to a September poll from Pew) has become a stress test of the nation's ability to defeat this pandemic."
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's election lawsuits, Jill Biden, William Barr, COVID: top columns
