BILL PRESS (HOST): Lately, hasn't there been more focus on immigration, thanks in part to Donald Trump?
KRISTIAN RAMOS: Well, this is an interesting thing because I think this goes two ways. Yes, that is absolutely correct. There has been more of a conversation about that. But I would argue that while that's important, the economic policies of conservatives are actually way worse for Latinos than any offensive comments that Donald Trump may be making. And the fact that everything's so focused on Donald Trump lets the rest of the conservative movement off the hook. In fact, and we may get into this a little later, but right now you're seeing a reset from folks like Paul Ryan, from folks like Marco Rubio on the issue of immigration because of Donald Trump, right? So he's a symptom, but I think there's a broader disease, which, quite frankly, is borne out of conservative talk radio, conservative media, right? These guys have been parroting Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, a lot of these guys, for a long time. And suddenly they have a candidate who literally just says whatever these guys are saying, and the rest of the conservative movement is being pulled along with them, to the detriment of the country, really.
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RAMOS: On talk radio, they do not use -- they're not shy about their dislike of Latinos or Hispanics or immigrants in general. And it used to be that if you were an elected official, you kind of hid it. You couldn't be overtly derisive of these groups. Today they are openly derisive of large portions of the country. And I think that is in large part to the fact that Fox News and a lot of these guys have been mainstreamed in many ways. We use right-wing media at Media Matters right now, but the reality is we've created this perverse reverse incentive where the more crazy you are, the more derogatory and awful you are, the more the media pays attention to you. And you get to go on Saturday Night Live, right? And I mean, that's the real problem that I see here.
