8 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 Paste BN Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.

— Paste BN Opinion editors

1. Biden is like a house you buy 'as is.' I did, and it's the best investment I ever made.

By Michael J. Stern

"If Republicans can respond to the abject corruption of their leader with 'that’s Trump being Trump,' we should be able to accept Biden’s innocuous foibles with 'that’s Joe being Joe.'  Given the alternative, I’ll take Joe Biden any day of the week.  And I’ll take Joe 'as is.'"

2. Like Kamala Harris, I'm the daughter of an Indian immigrant. We are the American story

By Neera Tanden

"To understand the Kamala Harris story, one has to understand the story of her mother, Shyamala Gopalan. Her story is quintessentially American. And as with so many great American stories, it didn’t start in this country. It started in India. ... This is a moment where many South Asians and Asians can feel not just welcomed by this country, but truly embraced by it."

3. The Clintons should be silent this election. However faintly, they paved the way for Trump.

By David Mastio

"While the severity of the Clinton disease in the Democratic Party is nothing compared with the Trump mutation, it wasn't without consequence — the Clinton era did derail the momentum of the women's movement for many years and made Democrats far from perfect messengers for ethical concerns about Trump."

4. Is Kamala Harris the future of the Democratic Party? Yes and no.

By Jill Lawrence and Kelsey Bloom

"Jill: This made-for-TV video convention is growing on me night by night, or maybe Democrats are just learning to do it better. ... The more interesting choice was to focus on Democratic policy priorities at the get-go.

"Kelsey:  After Donald Trump won in 2016, have Democrats adopted any significant policy change to try to attract those voters back? Their rhetoric, evermore constrained by identity politics, certainly hasn't."

5. Log Cabin Republicans chair: LGBT Americans belong in Donald Trump's Republican Party

By Robert Kabel

"Trump’s agenda has been a boon to the gay community. ... As Democrats spend the week declaring themselves the party of inclusivity, remember that actions speak louder than words. Today, the GOP has proved itself to be the true party of equality. "

6. Trump has a plan to steal the election and it's not clear Democrats have a plan to stop him

By Jason Sattler

"My only wish for the 2020 election was that it not turn out to be anything like the disaster that was 2016. Yet as we head into the Democratic National Convention, we’ve already seen almost everything that made our last presidential cycle a nightmare — and worse."

7. I never expected the Democratic convention to inspire me: former Republican state chair

By Jennifer Horn

"Under the circumstances, it would have been easy for the Democrats to spend four nights trashing the president with abandon and every Republican in Washington right along with him. It would have been easy for them to give in to the urge to lead with anger and further divide our nation. Instead, they spent the first two nights trying to mend our divide. "

8. The Backstory: Paste BN must better reflect the US to tell the stories of our nation

By Nicole Carroll

"Journalists bring their whole selves to their jobs — in pitching ideas, in finding sources, in noticing details and in explaining why something is happening, not just what is happening. By having a team that mirrors the U.S. in gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, we can better surface, report and tell the full story of our nation."