i've been watching the white house press briefings for a few months now, and there's nothing even approaching a centrist position from much of anywhere. you'll get some ethnic groups standing up for their own from time to time, but it's all very one-dimensional. it's just right-wing journalist after right-wing journalist asking questions that seem framed around fox news coverage. i'm sure there's somebody at the show that watches these things and will agree how painful they are to watch. the closest thing i've seen to somebody asking about the humanitarian issue on the border was a trick question to try and get the secretary to admit that the administration was trying to weaken border security - when anybody aware of the facts knows how deport-happy the administration is.
what that creates is a situation where the only press pressure that the president is getting is from the right and the extreme right. there is still a facade of democracy in the united states, enough that the president needs to react to the press, for political reasons. the absolute deficit in the press corps of anybody approaching anything left wing means he has zero pressure to hold on policies, or move in a more progressive direction. it follows that getting somebody in there that's asking less outrageous questions is likely to actually have a policy effect, in allowing him to stand still or forcing him to moderate a little.
again: it's easier said than done. limited resources. i get it. but even a single, indignant voice can turn a room enough to turn up the heat. and, if it's not within the abilities of democracy now, i still think it's something you can float around to like-minded organizations.
watching the press conferences, you'd think obama set the dream act up to create an overground railroad to smuggle in illegals, and his secretary is doing a bad job in distracting from it. and yet we see here what's really happening.
Rachel Golem
Yes, of course. All the problems in Honduras are the fault of white people who have never been there!!!!!!
NeoGeo12
CIA coups, Corrupt trade deals and the heinous drug war are the major reasons why America government is responsible for all this mass immigration.
deathtokoalas
the trade deals are key. this was predicted in the 90s.