legislation abolishing government-based racial and gender preferences. As one journalist observes, "Among Republicans, there's no philosophical disagreement over affirmative action" (Fineman, 1995, p. 25). Disagreement is rampant among Democrats, however. Right-wing Democrats, led by a group of self-described moderates called the Democratic Leadership Council, have labeled affirmative action unfair. Left-wing Democrats, led by Jesse Jackson, have already mounted protests in favor of affirmative action. President Bill Clinton's administration is caught in the middle and routinely sidesteps the issue to avoid divisiveness.
The American public is also divided on the issue of affirmative action--along racial lines. Recent polls by Newsweek magazine indicate that 79 percent of whites oppose racial preferences in employment or college admissions while only 46 percent of minorities oppose such policies (Fineman, 1995, p. 25). Whites generally resent affirmative action because it violates the American ideal of merit-based upward mobility. According to Ellis Cose (1995), the concept of meritocracy in American society is a myth: "Determining real merit is so difficult that we generally find ourselves focusing on test scores. Much of the case against affirmative action ends up
being a case for people who test well as opposed to people who don't" (p. 34). Cose (1995) points to the numerous preferential policies tha
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