ItMay not Work in Politics
Q.1
CongressionalEthics
Like other citizens in the United States, members of the congress aresubject to prosecution for criminal misconduct (Porter &Warrender, 2013). Several congress leaders, such as Charles Rangelhave been charged with the violation of ethical norms as wellillustrated below.
Reasonfor the Charges
Charles Rangel, the second long longest serving member in the houseof representative was convicted of financial misconduct by the UnitedStates congress. An eight-member House of the representative panelprovided clear and convincing evidence that Rangel was guilty. Thecommittee said that Rangel received benefits that influenced hisgovernmental duties. For about 28 times since 1978, Rangel failed toreport sales of his assets. Assets appeared and disappeared without aclear time frame of when they were acquired. The assets were worthabout $239,026 to $831,000. Lack of record of acquisition of theassets violated the house rules (Porter & Warrender, 2013). Hedefended himself with a vague argument that he had delegated hisduties to his staff to complete the forms, so he could not bedirectly accused for financial misconduct. In addition, Rangelviolated the state and city regulations as it was realized that herented apartments in Upper Manhattan. It was later discovered that heearned more than $75,000 in rental income. However, in hisdisclosure, he had stated that he earned zero income from thisapartment. The verdict from the members was unanimous this showedthat even his colleagues voted against him.
Do You Agree or Disagree With the Verdict?
I agree with the verdict of the members. This is because during theverdict even his fellow democrats voted against him. Eight out oftwelve members voted against him. This proves that the members werenot biased but stood with the truth (Porter & Warrender, 2013).Secondly, there was concrete evidence about his financial misconduct.For example, Charles did not have documents of when he acquired andsold his assets. The assets only appeared and disappeared without anyexplanation causing heavy financial losses.
Impactof the Verdict
The verdict impacted positively on my trust towards the members ofthe Congress. The members voted in one accord against Charles,including his fellow democrats. This proved that the members had setaside their individual differences.
Q.2
ThirdParty Candidates
Third party candidates experience a series of problems in theUnited States. Candidates aligned with the Democratic or Republicanparty have a direct entry into the ballot, unlike the third partieswho need thousands of signatures to be listed on the ballot. Somethird parties arise as a result of dissatisfaction with the statusquo (Rosenstone et al., 2016)
Politicalreasons
Dominanceof the Democratic and Republican Party
The majority of people in the United States are either aligned withthe Democrats or Republicans. The body that makes the regulationsgoverning the elections are made up of elected democratic andrepublican officials. These officials are oriented in protecting theexisting duopoly. Though the Democratic and Republic politicalparties are competitive, they both aim at preventing a third partyfrom gaining. This motive to keep away a third political party makesit difficult for presidential candidates in these parties to win theelection (Rosenstone et al,.2016). In conclusion, most of thesupporters are aligned to the two superior political parties.
Constitutionalbiases
The presidential selection is a variant of the plurality method andthus causes problems to third parties. The Electoral College countsthe number of times a candidate wins the plurality contest held inthe distinct fifty states and the District of Columbia. Each outcomeis weighed by the number of state electoral votes. If a candidateemerges second or third, he fails to get even a singles of theelectoral vote, regardless of the percentage of the popular vote.Third parties can only win a presidential election by gatheringenough electoral votes to pass the election into the House ofRepresentatives. The Electoral College is a harsh system thatdiscriminates third parties (Rosenstone et al., 2016). Thethird parties fail to secure popular votes in most of the states. Themost popular plan to curb this policy is a direct popular electionfor the president. A runoff should follow up if the winning candidatefails to gather at least 40% of the total votes cast. In conclusion,the Electoral College makes it harder for third parties to win thepresidential elections.
Examples
Thurmond, a presidential candidate in 1948, he gathered 7.3% of theElectoral College and 2.4% of the popular vote. The Electoral Collegefails to favor regionally based third political parties.
Politicalimpact on Democratic and Republican party
If third political parties were more effective, the Democratic andRepublican dominance could be reduced. All the three politicalparties would have a relatively equal dominance. The duopoly ofDemocrats and Republicans would be completely eliminated.
Q.3
Federaland State Authority
Throughout the nation’s history, immigration has been viewed as asource of demographic dynamism. The immigration law at the statelevel is used to regulate the immigration. The state has alsodeveloped the use of E-verify. In addition, many states haveprohibited immigration without documentation. Litigation byimmigrants challenges the law. At the federal level, the SupremeCourt address immigration issues at the federal level (Archibold,2012).
Determine Whether the U. S. Constitution Constrains the Federaland State Responses to the Issue
The United State Constitution articulates to the issue. Several lawshave been developed to address the immigration. The constitution hasa clause on immigration and nationality Act.
Reference
Archibold, R. C. (2012). Arizona enacts stringent law on immigration.New York Times, 23, 42.
Porter, L. E., & Warrender, C. (2013). A multivariate model ofpolice deviance: examining the nature of corruption, crime andmisconduct. Policing & Society, 19(1), 79-99.
Rosenstone, S. J., Behr, R. L., & Lazarus, E. H. (2016). Thirdparties in America: Citizen response to major party failure.Princeton University Press.