10 of our top opinion 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. Grand jury made right call in Breonna Taylor case
By Njeri Rutledge and Geoffrey S. Corn
"Perhaps unsurprisingly, the views of the experts have been drowned out by the public dismay over what on the surface seemed reckless and outrageous. But in the final analysis, the evidence is insufficient to prove murder or manslaughter beyond a reasonable doubt."
2. Filling Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Supreme Court seat would be a disastrous Republican move
By Chris Truax
"The current legislative calendar has 13 Senate work days scheduled between now and Nov. 3. If Republicans were to attempt to force through a Supreme Court nomination after they know they have lost the Senate, the political paybacks from the new majority will be incalculable."
3. Donald Trump's supervillain ABC town hall made Joe Biden appear almost superhuman
By Windsor Mann
"Like most Americans, I didn’t watch President Trump’s town hall on Tuesday night. I was too busy doing anything else. Two days later, I capitulated and watched it on demand. Five minutes later, Joe Biden’s town hall began. The contrast was startling."
4. Remove the natural born citizen clause from the Constitution. Let immigrants be president.
By Randall Kennedy and Ilya Somin
"This presidential election season joins the last several in being attended by accusations that certain candidates are ineligible because of the requirement in Article II of the Constitution that the president be not only a citizen, but a 'natural born' citizen."
5. My generation is being raised to hate America — it’s time to stand up for our history
By Anthony Jones
"In a Gallup poll this June, only 63% of U.S. adults say they are either 'extremely proud' or 'very proud' to be American, the lowest level of patriotism ever recorded since Gallup first asked the question in 2001. Among members of my generation, the youngest surveyed, patriots are in the minority. Only 4 out of 10 respondents ages 18-34 claim to be extremely or very proud of being American."
6. Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and the Republican Party play victims. Don't let them.
By Kirsten Powers
"Few would disagree with the contention that Washington has reached new heights of dysfunction in recent years. It’s tempting to blame 'both sides' for this problem, but it would be inaccurate. ... Politicians in both the Democratic and Republican Parties can be raging hypocrites, so much so that it barely shocks us anymore."
7. COVID-19 death toll: 200,000 souls are asking their fellow Americans why
By The Editorial Board
"The United States accounts for 4% of the world’s population yet more than 20% of the world’s pandemic fatalities. Put another way, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 is what would have resulted had Osama bin Laden mounted 67 attacks on the United States similar to those of 9/11."
8. Will Democrats grow backbones amid Trump-Republican rush to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg?
By Jill Lawrence
"Conservatives lost the country long ago. Yet they already have a Supreme Court majority, and now it looks like they could have one for generations. And liberals helped give it away."
9. Honor Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg by registering to vote and casting a ballot
By Suzette Hackney
"Voter participation countrywide has been abysmal in recent elections. According to the Pew Research Center, America ranked 26th of 32 developed nations for the percentage of eligible voters who took part in the last presidential election. By Pew's count, 55.7% of the U.S. voting age population cast a vote in 2016. America, we can and should do better."
10. Harvard Medical deans: Push for COVID-19 vaccine must put health above politics
By Dr. George Q. Daley, Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier and Dr. Joseph B. Martin
"A return to our normal way of life will require public acceptance of the vaccine and delivery to a sufficient percentage of the population to achieve herd immunity. Yet a recent Pew Research Center public opinion poll shows that almost half of the U.S. population definitely or probably would not get vaccinated at this time, indicating widespread vaccine skepticism. ."
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: Breonna Taylor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Trump's town hall: Top columns
