The Sunday — December 1

This is the Tangle Sunday Edition, a brief roundup of our independent politics coverage plus some extra features for your Sunday morning reading. 

What the right is doodling.

What the left is doodling.

Reader essay.

Now that we’re past the election’s immediate aftermath, we think it’s time to start getting into some broader thoughts about how the election went — and how our electoral system works. This week, we’re featuring a short essay from reader Mark Rapier about a flaw he sees in the Electoral College. Listeners of our Sunday podcast may recall that our managing editor Ari Weitzman has argued that the Electoral College gives small states more voting power and larger cities relatively less; Mark, however, comes at the issue from a completely different angle. You can read his piece here.

Have a personal story or local issue you want to write about? Pitch us! Fill out this form or reply to this email, and we’ll get back to you if we’re hooked.

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Reader review.

In this section, we like to feature two comments from the same edition that critique our coverage in two different ways. In our edition on the bathroom bill proposed by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), two readers disagreed on whether the bill would create productive or distracting conversations.

Lisa Selin Davis appreciated that Mace’s bill provided the opportunity to ask useful questions.

"The controversy isn't about a trans bathroom—it's about the lack of a trans bathroom. It's about who gets to use the women's room, and if that should be determined by someone's body or someone's identity. As I wrote here, women haven't been asked, or listened to, about the issue. This isn't a left-right issue, since gender-critical feminists have been raising it for many decades before Republicans started to. It's about how we accommodate gender outliers without compromising sex-based rights. It's an opportunity to finally be able to ask such questions without being dismissed as bigoted or right-wing. That said, Mace's approach is bracing and distracting. She's not a great messenger. Her message, however, is important."

JLW said this law and others like it create more problems than they solve.

“Who exactly is going to be policing these bills? How are we going to prevent bullying and assault of women who don’t look ‘female enough’ for them?

I am a muscular woman with non-obvious secondary sex characteristics (low body fat and minimal breasts/hips). Do I need a letter from my OBGYN, verifying my biological sex, so I don’t get harassed while trying to pee?

We have real problems in this country and this is what our politicians are wasting their time on.”