Identifying Ethical Violations by a Congressional Member and its Impact on Trust of Congress
Ans.1 Charlie Rangel who was the most powerful members of the Congress was found guilty because he broke 11 separate congressional rules which is connected to the spending of excessive money and its relation to the fundraising initiatives for a New York College (Rodriguez, 2016). .
This case was handled by the eight-lawmaker subcommittee which handled the trial and after that case is sent to the full ethical committee . The punishments manly included is rebuke and it is mainly ratified by a vote on the House floor. Moreover, dismissal of the guilt person is another option for penalty (Newkirk, 2015). He also walked out of the trial because the panel of judge did not listen his request to delay the trial process because he had no money to pay for the s lawyer and the legal time. According to the July Report, Rangel utilized his congressional office to get money for a college brand which was named after him (Menzel, 2015). He also exterminated the violations of the New York City by housing his political committees in his rented apartment in Harlem. He also did not pay any taxes on a villa which is possessed in the Dominican Republic and he did not give any calculations about the personal financial assets. He resigned from that position last spring after being admonished for a minor ethical infraction involving accepting corporate-financed travel.
It can be considered that the Chisam who investigated nearly two-year investigation that Rangel had withdrawn the cheques from the corporations with no proper corporations and chief executives for spending money in the charity. The main thing which he had done that he has not use the letterhead of the congress ministries. Chisam then said they did not observe any evidence of corruption.
So, Rangel resigned from his position due to certain allegations and trials imposed on him. But he did not receive much penalty which he must have received but Chisam has saved him from that critical situation. This can only happened because Rangel was in a high position.
Ans.2. It has been observed in the 2016 the third parties in USA were Libertarian Party of which Gary Johnson , Jill Stein of Green Party, Constitution Party of Darrell Castle . The major other two parties are Democratic Party and Republican Party. Ronald Trump won in the presidential election in 2016. It can be considered that the Republican Party has nominated Trump (Mathiesen, 2016).
It can be considered that the Libertarian party which is much recognizable as the third party , always faced much hurdles in the election of Presidential election. They mainly faced an atmosphere which is inflicted with the biasness of the particular party. In this case the support goes fully to the winning party (Hershey, 2017). For example in 2016, Donald Trump attracted all the attention and aid from the people of USA. Another important thing is that the third party has to obtain the ballot in the 50 states, this obstacle was crossed by the Libertarian party.
Barriers Faced by Third Party Candidates in Presidential Elections
So, it can be said that the electoral appeal is s not enough , these things also matter. At least the libertarian party have able to gain ballot in the correct quantity of states. Unfortunately any independent party does not get this scope also (Maisel, 2016). Another negative aspect is that as USA has single member congressional districts and an electoral college who selects the president do not encourage the third party and the independent person to not form any party. The other fact is that the racial discrimination is also present in USA. Though in 2009 Barack Obama won the election by out breaking this racial discrimination and also won the Nobel peace prize in 2009. But unfortunately, it does not happen in all elections.
If the third party has won leaving aside the Democratic and Republican party then it would have been perhaps not accepted by the electoral system and the these two political parties of America. This would definitely pave the way for political anarchy in the USA.
Ans 3. It can be said that currently America is facing the challenge of national security. The expansion of the weapons led to the mass destruction and it threatened the security of the USA. Terrorism and international organized crimes, over use of drugs is the main problem in USA. In America there is a difference between the public interest and the national interest. In USA the public interest denotes the welfare of the people and the economic condition within the United States also. The national interest is about the safety and security of the American citizens which encompasses the boundary out of USA. Security and protection are the important factors in the salient foreign policy. This is the period when America are threatened by the policies of countries which threatened the security of the people of United States (Schoultz, 2014).
It can be considered that the public interest and the national interest are more or less same. The national interests also depends on the stability and security within the states of USA. It can be said that the federal , state and the local government all are involved in resolving issue these issues. There are also strategic steps which are taken by the government in terms of economy, military resources and others.
In USA there are certain other issues of very cruel penalty. It has been found that 2.3 million people are behind the jails in the United States, the largest reported imprisoned population in the world. Of those, 211,000 are in the federal system, and 2 million are in state prisons and local jails (Bowman & Kearney, 2017). Barack Obama tried to lessen the sentences of 944 people in 2016 who were mainly convicted for the drug abuse. But this thing has not properly erased from the states. USA is still facing this critical problem of terrorism. This problem will erased when the constitution law of the USA will transform, otherwise it is not possible to bring change in this critical issue.
References
Bowman, A. O. M., & Kearney, R. C. (2017). State and local government. Nelson Education.
Hershey, M. R. (2017). Party politics in America. Taylor & Francis.
Maisel, L. S. (2016). American political parties and elections: A very short introduction (Vol. 169). Oxford University Press.
Mathiesen, K. (2016). Polar opposites in US election. Nature Climate Change, 6(11), 979-981.
Menzel, D. C. (2015). THE ETHICS OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS IN THE UNITED STATES. Ethics in Public Policy and Management: A Global Research Companion, 127.
Newkirk, I. (2015). Ethical Crimes. Civil Disobedience: An Encyclopedic History of Dissidence in the United States, 21.
Rodriguez, R. M. (2016). Examining the Evolving Ethical Environment Within the Minnesota State Senate and House of Representatives. Lulu Press, Inc.
Schoultz, L. (2014). Human Rights and United States Policy toward Latin America. Princeton University Press.