Question one
On July 14, 2017, Representative Christopher Collins faced one of the most challenging moments as a Congress Member following the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) transmitted a referral to the Committee on Ethics. The OCE accused Collins of sharing a material nonpublic information in the purchase of the Innate Immunotherapeutic Limited (Innate) (OCE, 2017). The OCE stated that Collins used his status as a Member of the House of Representatives to purchase discounted stock that was not available to the public. The other allegation on Collins unethical conduct or violation of the stipulated Code of Conduct by sharing material nonpublic information to gain the favor of discounted stock that was unavailable to the public.
These charges violate that House Rules, Standards of Conduct and federal law. The House Ethics Manual prohibits the use of one’s position with the House for Personal Gain. The allegation of providing materials nonpublic information violates the Gift Application to Compensation and use of Congressional Office Resources ( House ethics manual , 2008). It is clear that any Congress Representative or government employee should not use their office to acquire favors such as the allegations by the OCE in reference to Collins actions.
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The first time the Board recommended that the OCE should review the allegations as there was no substantial evidence but the case was referred back to the Board with the OCE arguing that the evidence provided was enough to portray that Rep. Collins financial interests are evident. However, on October 12, 2017, the Committee on Ethics indicated the need to continue gathering information to announce the findings (OCE, 2017). The case is still incomplete and the move by the Committee on Ethics to continue gathering info means that there are substantial reasons that one or both allegations are true. However, the financial interests and the evidence provided by the OCE it is clear Rep. Collins abused his position as a Member of the House of Representatives.
The discounted stocks unavailable to the public portray insider job, which only strengthens the allegations made. Lastly, it is difficult to prove that Rep. Collins shared nonpublic materials to acquire the stock as gifts because he is on the Innate Board. Therefore, abuse of power or office is the most likely breach and it is unethical and illegal.
Question two
In the history of America, since the emergence of the two dominant parties, the Republican and Democrat , the third party candidate has never been successful in winning the presidential elections, and this is tied to a number of political reasons. One of the reasons is because of the psychology of human (Hashemi, 2016). Voters have a misconception or a belief concerning the third party in a system driven primarily by two major parties. In seeing the failure of third party year after year, not even coming close to the Republican or Democrats voter turnout, people have the tendency of thinking that their vote would not count if they vote for the third party because they will never win. As such, voters tend to cast their votes for the candidates of the two major political parties, to garner the required 50 percent of the votes (Hashemi, 2016).
Second, a third party has always been unsuccessful in winning presidential elections because they are disadvantaged and do not always have the same privileges as the Republicans and Democrats parties. These privileges include government funding for campaigns of the president, ballot access, and run primaries (Hashemi, 2016). For instance, to reach the consciousness of the public and develop brand recognition, candidates need resources such as finances. Voters also learn information they know regarding candidates from television commercials of thirty-second, which are quite expensive to run, that most third parties cannot afford. On the one hand, people only donate to parties that they feel confident and viable on the ballot. On the other hand, one way of convincing voters of a candidate’s viability is through expensive advertising, which cost a lot of money that third parties do not have (Cranston, B. (2016).
If a third party was successful at winning elections of the president, this would greatly impact both the democratic and republican parties. Since the majority of the Senate and House are made up of the two major parties, having a president from a third party member would affect the way the parties manipulate the passage of bills. In addition, it may assist in alleviating the stalemate which normally ensues since the major parties are on the opposite spectrum end.
Question three
One current issue facing Americans in the past few months is the dissatisfaction with the government. The general dissatisfaction with the government feeling and its leadership, which is poor, was the cited as the most current issue facing Americans according to the New York Times (Aisch & Parlapiano, 2017). Despite the administration of Trump finally getting some particular form of his ban on travel enacted, terrorism, national security, and immigration were still cited by the majority of Americans for his government dissatisfaction.
In addressing the issue, the federal government, in consultation with the local and state governments has developed a domestic policy to deal with the issue (Longley, 2018). In this context, domestic policy refers to actions and plans, which the national government takes to deal with the needs, and issues present within the country (Longley, 2018). However, the constitution of the US does not constraint the state and federal responses to the issues of people dissatisfaction with the government.
References
Aisch, G., & Parlapiano, A. Feb 27, 2017, What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?’ The New York Times , https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/27/us/politics/most-important-problem-gallup-polling-question.html
Cranston, B. November 2, 2016, Unless you have $500m spare don't even try to run for President - no wonder third party candidates are failing. Independent , https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/gary-johnson-jill-stein-third-party-candidates-us-election-a7393961.html
Hashemi, S. July 26, 2016, Why Third Parties have never won the general election. Oddysey , https://www.theodysseyonline.com/why-third-parties-never-won-general-election
Longley, R. April 1, 2018, What is domestic policy in US government? Dealing with issues that affect Americans' daily lives. ThoughtCo , https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-domestic-policy-4115320
OCE. (2017). OCE Referral Regarding Rep. Chris Collins. Retrieved from https://oce.house.gov/reports/investigations/oce-referral-regarding-rep-chris-collins
U.S. G.P.O. (2008). House ethics manual . Washington, DC.
