DAVID MARCUS: MAGA’s H-1B ‘civil war’ is exactly how politics should work

There are two very good pieces of news that have come out of the conflict over H-1B visas for foreign skilled workers in Trump World this week. The first happy accident is that tensions are already easing, much to the chagrin of liberals who hoped they were witnessing a permanent schism.

The other, even better development is that both sides of the admittedly nervous debate have listened, compromised, and arrived at a better and clearer set of positions for the Republican Party moving forward.

A side by side of Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk. (Getty Images/AP Images)

In the red corner we had the twin heads of the Department of Government Efficiency, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk, who first appeared to call for expansion of the H-1B visa program that allows employers to use foreign workers when they can’t find qualified Americans .

In the other red corner, we had Steve Bannon and a number of prominent America Firsters all but calling for an end to the Skilled Foreign Worker Program, a policy that would undoubtedly cause significant chaos and disruption.

On Saturday, Trump-elect weighed in on the New York Post in a way that he likes the visa program and uses it himself, but that he does not support any expansion. And of course it is the same Trump who fired Tennessee Valley Authority board members to use foreign labor rather than Americans.

By Sunday morning, when parents were quietly sipping coffee and catching up on the news on their phones while the kids got a little more sleep before church, things had dropped considerably in this impromptu intramural immigration debate.

For his part, Ramaswamy, after an ill-advised X post this week in which he criticized American families for having more sleepovers and movie nights than their South Asian counterparts, has retreated from his cultural high ground and re-educated his view of the real issue.

The only real losers in the aftermath of this fight are the Democrats and the liberal talking heads who were hoping to see MAGA tear itself apart.

Meanwhile, Musk arguably moved even further to the heart of the issue, posting late Saturday night that the overruns of the H-1B visa program “are easily solved by raising the minimum wage significantly and adding an annual cost to maintain H-1B, does it significantly more expensive to hire from abroad than domestically.”

Or as a Musk ally and head of Trump’s Office of Artificial Intelligence David Sacks said so‘Elon has said that the H1B should be overhauled, that it should focus on exceptional talent in high-value fields, and that fraud and low-paying jobs should end. This does not mean that there are not still differences, but less than it first appeared. Time to move forward as one team.’

This is music to the ears of the America First crowd and good news for the young American architect or graphic designer who just wants a level playing field where they don’t lose out over and over again to cheap foreign competition.

Meanwhile, the Bannonistas, who have been at Trump’s side from the very beginning a decade ago, are easing their attacks on newcomers Ramaswamy and Musk, appreciating that they are all on the same team.

The only real losers in the aftermath of this fight are the Democrats and the liberal talking heads who were hoping to see MAGA tear itself apart. While Republicans work out their differences, the left eats crow instead of munching on popcorn.

There are some lessons to be learned from recent unpleasantries. At one point, some in the pro-H-1B crowd and some on the left accused those opposed to anti-South Asian racism of a terrible lie and an even worse message. Fortunately, this did not last long.

And it’s important that the generally left-wing tactic of pointing and shouting racism didn’t work, because these are exactly the fights that have our foreign enemies drooling with their trolling robot farms on social media, and they were working overtime to divided Americans this week.

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Fortunately, it failed.

Finally, when tempers cooled and discourse bent back toward kindness and good faith. What we are left with is a fruitful and full debate on a nuanced issue.

Of course America wants to attract the best and the brightest to help chart a technological course forward, but we also don’t want to tell a truck driver that the kid he’s sending to college will be passed over for cheaper foreign counterparts.

The opportunity to balance these concerns against attracting the best from elsewhere, without straining the ability of our own citizens to achieve, is up to us. Compromise is indeed possible. It may not always look like a church social, it can get a little rough around the edges, but as a wise man once said, ‘politics ain’t beanbag’.

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Trump takes office in about three weeks, and it bodes well for his upcoming four years as president that those who serve and support can not only argue with pointed force, but also meet with an honest give and take when called upon the.

The fight over H-1B turned out not to be a crisis in MAGAland, but rather a roadmap for compromise and competent governance.

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