Some people claim that elected officials must avoid even the appearance of impropriety in office. Yet since actions ...

Ravi on March 6, 2019

@Mario-Gomez-Castro,

Happy to help. You're asking how (A) differs from (D) in the choices.
Let's first take a look at the stimulus.

The argument is saying that regardless of what some people claim, the
only reason for an elected official to avoid the appearance of
impropriety is to maintain public approval and popularity. However,
the argument notes that no one, not even elected officials, has an
obligation to be popular or maintain public approval.

The question says, "The argument is structured so as to lead to which
one of the following conclusions?"

The argument is saying there's only one reason to avoid the appearance
of impropriety, and that no one has an obligation to stick to that
reason. From this, we should anticipate that no elected official has
an obligation to avoid the appearance of impropriety in office. Now
let's take a look at the answers.

(D) says, "The public never approves of an elected official who
appears to have behaved improperly in office."

The problem with (D) is that the public's approval and when the public
choose to approve (or not to approve) an elected official is never
addressed in the stimulus. Therefore, we can't conclude this. We can
get rid of this choice.

(A) says, "No elected official has an obligation to avoid the
appearance of impropriety."

This is exactly what we had anticipated. We know there's only one
reason to avoid the appearance of impropriety, and we also know that
there is no obligation to adhere to that reason, so this is the answer
choice.

The biggest difference between (A) and (D) is that (D) brings in a
topic (public's approval) that isn't mentioned in the stimulus, so
there's no way it can be supported. Does this make sense?

Let us know if you have any more questions!