5 of our top opinion pieces 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 the week's top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.

— USA TODAY Opinion editors

1. Mayor Pete Buttigieg's countercultural approach to Christianity is what America needs now

By Kirsten Powers

"What advice does Mayor Pete have for those struggling to be graceful toward those with whom we disagree politically? 'Well, I think it starts with a certain amount of humility and recognizing that how you voted doesn't make you a good person or a bad person, and we shouldn't think of ourselves as better human beings because of how we voted,' he said. In our pugilistic take-no-prisoners era, preaching grace toward those on the other side of the political fence is decidedly countercultural. Whether Mayor Pete becomes our nation’s first millennial president or not, he has already started a crucial conversation for the country."

2. I was with Joe Biden when no one was looking, and he was always a champion for women

By Elizabeth E. Alexander

"What you won’t read about is how Joe Biden took the rare step of paying staffers through their entire maternity leaves. ... What you won’t read about is how he recruited women who had worked for him in the Senate, and had 'gaps' in their paid work history because of family demands. ... Those years in between compensated work were just as valuable to him as any traditional work experience. What you won’t read about it is how he supported staff (like me) when they wanted to go to law school at night. ... You won’t read about how he’d tell male staffers and senators who were repeatedly interrupting a woman to pipe down, so he could hear what she was trying to say."

3. Standards for police are low enough. Supreme Court must stand against police retaliation.

By Tonja Jacobi

"The court is being asked to decide whether probable cause for a minor offense — be it driving 1 mile over the speed limit or failing to signal — not only allows the police to racially profile them, as Whren v. U.S. allows, but also to make a retaliatory arrest after a perceived slight or because of animus the officer may harbor. ... I do not want to have to tell the schoolchildren next year that the police can brag that they are arresting them out of animus. I hope the Supreme Court saves me from having to apologize for adding that layer of unfairness to a system already stacked against them.

4. The Electoral College is undemocratic? Of course. That's why it works.

By Jon Gabriel

"If the Electoral College were abandoned, party front-runners would camp out exclusively in urban areas. The pancake breakfasts in Des Moines, Iowa, and Denver, Colorado, would be replaced with mammoth rallies in Los Angeles and New York City. ... Moving to a national popular vote would destroy one of our foundational checks and balances: The interests of rural and small-town Americans would be abandoned for those of urban elites."

5. McConnell is trying to leave a lifetime conservative legacy through judicial appointments

By Kristine Lucius

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's singular goal has been to fill the federal courts with biased judges who will help the wealthy and the powerful. This includes pending nominees like Matthew Kacsmaryk, who has a record against the LGBTQ community, and Wendy Vitter, who has promoted dangerously false claims that birth control pills can cause violent death. These are the types of extreme nominees Senate Republicans are rigging the system to rush into lifetime positions."