First of all, please knock off the personal attacks, Spiff - HoweverComma and myself have not done such to you. Second, I thought from HoweverComma's post that Willis Carto had appeared on Spencer's radio show. Since HoweverComma has not been able to back that up, or perhaps because I misunderstood his post, I will retract that. However, that does not fundamentally change the problem being debated here. The event where Spencer and Willis appeared together definitely had a whiff of racist elements (I'll go back out to Google and get the details, although I may not be able to get them posted until tomorrow), and I don't think it was a good idea for Spencer to go there. I do believe HoweverComma that Spencer allowed some racist nutbar to rant on his show without countering or disagreeing with him - and that, IMO, was a mistake - and apparently the management of the radio station agreed, because Spencer got pulled afterwards. And third, apparently JimRob agrees that there is a problem there, because he does not allow American Patrol on FR, so he has been convinced as well. It isn't because of the topic of illegal immigration - because that topic is robustly debated on FR.
So Spencer, with his actions, is steadily marginalizing his program and his cause. But you ain't gonna reverse that trend by running around hurling insults and calling people names - instead, you'll just drag it down further. In case you haven't noticed, HoweverComma and myself fundamentally AGREE WITH YOU on the problem of illegal immigration. However, we sincerely believe there is a problem with the public perception of this cause when Glenn Spencer associates with nutbars - and JimRob and the manager of a radio station apparently agrees - so why don't you drop the insults and maybe just listen to what we are saying? If you want to do something about illegal immigration, you and countless others are going to have to convince a sizeable number of voters to back you. But that will not happen when Spencer is handing to liberals the hammer to hit the cause with. Perceptions DO MATTER, whether you want to believe it or not.
I admit I get a little hot under the collar when people are unfairly tarring a good man and organization with a bunch of baseless smears and vague references to "perception". The insults were not entirely appropriate since you are now backpedaling and admitting that your source for some of the accusations was HoweverComma alone. And the source of his accusations were...equally worthless.
The problem is that, as you say, you "sincerely believe there is a problem with" a public perception that is not accurate. Instead of telling the leftists that they're full of crap when it comes to Spencer, you and HoweverComma attempt to appease them by submitting to their "perceptions" and joining in their attacks against a good man and organization. But you can't appease them. You let the wolves devour a sheep at the edge of the flock, and then another, and then another - they never stop - the next thing you know it will be you staring at a hungry pack of wolves and see that the flock has turned away from your demise because they prefer not to be "associated" with those on the "fringe" because they are afraid of how they might be "perceived".
I've seen it happen time and time again. Some leftist comes up with a baseless smear and the next thing you know it is accepted as fact for decades. I'm not a big fan of the John Birch Society, but that is precisely what has happened to them. When you dig right down to the source of the initial accusations you find that the sources were actually leftist enemies of the JBS who made it all up. Yet, look how they are perceived today in spite of the truth. Watch what happens when someone posts their latest Conservative Index ratings for members of Congress. It is bad enough that the leftists are doing all they can to destroy us, but then we don't hesitate for a minute to jump in and join the feeding frenzy when there's a little bit of blood in the water.
I've met Glenn Spencer on a number of occasions. I'm one of the sources for some of his articles and help him any way I can. I've seen what he's done lately and what he's doing with the American Border Patrol. I know, personally, some of the members on the American Border Patrol's board of directors. These are good people trying their best to do a good thing to begin to solve a problem that Washington refuses to properly address. You're not helping them or the overall border problem one bit by throwing them to the wolves. They're the good guys no matter what the leftist loonies have to say about it.
The truth is the truth. Being a slave to perception only serves the enemy.