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Dear Editor,
The razor-thin defeat of Sen. Spencer Abraham casts a pall over the results
of the 2000 elections for those who favor an enlightened approach to
business immigration. What is equally ominous, though perhaps not as
obvious, is the extent to which the Democratic challenge to the Florida
results, however meritorious it might be, politicizes the electoral process
and diminshes the very idea of national consensus on which our system of
government depends. Truely, this notion, which is under severe challenge
today, is the essential lubricant of democracy. Once even the most
fundamental decisions are subject to dispute, then the only political
reality becomes partisan interest and factional advantage however that is
defined. If a presidential election (and I speak as a strong Gore
supporter) can be hauled into the courts to change the result, in what
context will it be credible in the future to speak of what America needs?
Once this notion is lost, once the very idea of speaking in national terms
is seen as the threadbare wisdom of a naive and bygone era, it is no longer
going to be possible to argue, as I have done in the past and as we all will
have to do in the future, that no enduring immigration policy in the
business context can be easily crafted or long endure unless the overarching
interest of the nation's economy is the prime consideration. You cannot
invoke unchecked partisanship to achieve certain aims (which I share) in
the presidential arena and then criticize business, labor, or the INS for
being narrowly focused in the immigration policy arena. Once the precedent
for tunnel vision to get what we want has been set, it is too late to turn
back.
Gary Endelman
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