It May Not Work in Politics

Congressional Ethics

Ms. Maxine Waters was in 2010 charged with violation of three congressional ethic. One of the charges was the violation of the Code of Ethics for Government Service. The second charge was that she had violated a house rule. The law states that every member of the Congress should behave in a manner that reflects creditability of the House at all times. The last violation she was said to have committed was that she was in violation of the spirit of the house rule. According to the rule, Congress members should not receive compensation for exerting improper influence using his/her position as a member of the Congress (Condon, 2010).

The Case of Ms. Maxine was filed after allegations that in 2008, she used her position to assist the bank in getting federal bailout money inappropriately. The accusations were however based on allegations that she had a personal connection to the matter and that the assistance was only offered for personal interests. The charges were, however, dropped as she was not found guilty of the allegations (Lipton, 2012). In my view the decision to drop the charges was appropriate. The fact that there was no evidence of her husband’s connection with the bank during the time she helped then disapproves the accusation that she was acting on a personal level. Waters have been involved in much financial assistance in the United States. Examples of this include loan guarantees to cities for infrastructural and economic development and even small business development. She also secured over $40 million to Youth Fair Chance, a program that assisted youths to get employment ("About Maxine", n.d.). Saving the bank was no different from the other assistances she has offered to other people as she helped save the jobs of the employees of the bank. It was also not proven that she benefited from the assistance she offered to the bank. Therefore, she did not deserve to be put through the trial as she was helping as she has always done. The clearing of the charges on Ms. Maxine proves that the Congress can perform its duties free of bias by considering all the evidence put on the table. The verdict, therefore, demonstrates that the Congress is trustworthy and is in full capability to perform their duties and deliver justice.

Third Party candidates

A third party is any party that is neither Democratic nor the Republican. One of the main reasons why any presidential candidate from a third party has never been successful is that the American people consistently support the notion of two political party system and they consider it part of their culture. The Two Party System makes part of the childhood political socialization. The childhood socialization is where cultural traits are passed on from one generation to another by the parents. Parents teach their children on all the factors that constitute one being a member of the society, and as a result, children take up what they have been taught, internalize it and then make it their own. The Two Party System is one of the many that have been taken up as part of the culture. The Two Party System is part of the American culture, and it is very difficult for people who have grown knowing that the two party is the way to go and that the system is the cornerstone of the political system in our country (Timmerman, 2014).

The another reason why the third party candidate has never won the elections is due to the Duverger’s law which plays a huge role in supporting the Two Party System. The Duverger’s law states “The simple-majority single-ballot system favors the two-party system.” (Benoit, 2006).  The law has both mechanical and psychological effect on the third party candidates and their voters. Mechanically, the third party candidate may win many votes countrywide but will only add up to few or no electoral votes in the individual states. The reason behind this is that the two parties dominating in the politics still have control of the ballot share. They will most likely still win due to plurality votes even though the third party candidate is more popular at an individual level. If for example, the third party won one-third votes in every state, this would be an equal vote share. In the same elections, a candidate from either of the two parties may most likely end up winning the elections due to the plurality vote for the party. Psychologically, the voters would be affected in that; they would vote for one of the two parties’ candidates depending on his/her popularity as they would want to be on the winning side. Therefore they will follow the majority even though they agree with the third party candidate (Timmerman, 2014). If a third party won the election, it would be of detrimental effect to the two parties as it would be an indication that they have failed and may result in the rise of more independent parties. It would be the end of the two, Democrat and Republican.

Federal and State Authority

One of the main issues affecting the United States today is the border security issue. The United States faces a grave danger at the security borders where illegal immigrants try to get into the country with a broad range of reasons. Among the reasons include terrorism where they carry weapons of mass destruction, transnational crimes like smuggling drugs in the country, and illegal migration to live and work in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security is the federal state authority responsible for the border security since its inception. Border patrol has been in place since its creation in 1924 however after the 1993 bomb attack, the responsibility of the border patrol was taken over by the Homeland Security (Rosenblum, Bjelopera, & Finklea, 2013).

Although they have been taking care of the border, the threat has increased as technological advancement continues. The biggest cause of the growing threat is resources. Resources like money have always been directed to other places, and the federal authority does not have the power to redirect them. The congress house is the branch of the government mandated to disburse the resources which delay the activities in tackling the border threat (Rosenblum, Bjelopera, & Finklea, 2013). If the resources were efficiently expended without the debate, the fight against border threats would be easier.