Editor’s note: Readers had strong feelings about Rachel del Guidice’s coverage of the decision by GuideStar—an aggregator of tax data on charities and other nonprofits—to use the label “hate group” for some well-known conservative organizations, attributing the designation to the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center. This week’s roundup begins by sampling those comments.—Ken McIntyre

Dear Daily Signal: Good information on what is wrong in America (“Nonprofit Tracker Smears Dozens of Conservative Organizations as ‘Hate Groups’”). Lists that a hate group creates should not be deemed credible. The Southern Poverty Law Center has a proven record of being a hate group in its own right.

How GuideStar could consider using the SPLC for honest input—or input of any organization like it—goes beyond sane thinking.

Germany went through a similar thing in the 1930s, turning the good people into criminals and then murdering them. It is a well-known fact that history repeats itself when history is suppressed. But we are fortunate to have many who know history and will not let truth die.—Don Cauley

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Jacob Harold, if you are going to remain GuideStar’s president and chief executive officer, you shouldn’t be a political activist. There is a built-in perceived conflict of interest.

But if you are an activist, you should preserve the integrity of GuideStar and create well-publicized firewalls to ensure your political activities and viewpoints do not influence your company’s activities and decisions. Admittedly a high bar, but that’s why GuideStar’s leader shouldn’t be a political activist in the first place.

You have, of course, crossed the line on all of the above.—Mark Simmons

Regarding Rachel del Guidice’s story about GuideStar, the company that tracks nonprofits and identifies some conservative-led organizations as “hate groups,” I find the label helpful. These are the groups I will donate to.—Rob Brooks

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GuideStar and the Southern Poverty Law Center might as well paint a target on each of the organizations they identify as hate groups. And I am dead serious after what happened when Republican leaders were targeted.—Corey W. Smith

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Truth is hate speech to those who hate the truth.—Daniel Kenneth Rousselle

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Obviously this GuideStar group lives in the liberal anti-reality bubble. Why would anyone find it credible? GuideStar is like the far left: out of touch with the real world.—Kathy Garry Moynan

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I had never heard of GuideStar before this. I trust nothing and no one who relies on the Southern Poverty Law Center, because it is a hate group.—Ford Hanson

If the SPLC were as vigorous in attacking hate groups on the left, maybe it would have more credibility.—Doug Wallace

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I wonder what organizations and persons are big funders of GuideStar?—Doug A. Cullinan

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It is wrong when an organization like the SPLC becomes a hate group in itself by abusing its power when it identifies anyone as hateful with whom it agrees. Disagreement and hate do not equate, but the way the SPLC does business, those words are synonymous … making it the most hateful entity involved.—Tor Anderson

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The SPLC fails to recognize the Council on American-Islamic Relations as being a hate group.—Jeff Davis

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The left has more power than we think. How “The Communist Manifesto” became required reading at most universities, including Penn State, while the Constitution became known as a racist document, is unfathomable.

Conservatives are not bad people. We want our constitutional rights preserved, which is exactly why America elected Donald Trump.—Walter Swartz

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I believed in and contributed to the Southern Poverty Law Center when it was first formed. I saw and wanted to fight oppression.

When that battle was largely won, the SPLC—like a carnivore in search of fresh meat—had to justify its existence. It fell victim to that contagious, evil transformation, much like many other organizations I used to support.

I didn’t leave the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC, and others, left me. They have become the oppressors.—Joanna Brannon Jones

There is no doubt that the SPLC initiated the practice of labeling conservatives—or anyone daring to protect traditional marriage—as hate groups, which makes it the supreme hater of all time.

It has been a moneymaking machine and targets the most vulnerable so it can extract as big a dollar amount as possible. The Daily Signal should ask those running GuideStar: How much money is in it for you?—Joan Smurthwaite

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The SPLC served a useful purpose in its day. Now it has devolved into an anti-white hate group and has turned into the very thing it fought against.—J.A. Lessard

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I am the furthest thing from a fan of the Southern Poverty Law Center, but in the interest of full disclosure I must say that it lists the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panthers under a section on black separatist groups, a class of organizations of which they disapprove.—Paul McCosby

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I find it hysterical that there is a video of the FBI’s interview of Family Research Council attacker Floyd Corkins in your story (“Nonprofit Tracker Smears Dozens of Conservative Organizations as ‘Hate Groups’”). The FBI no longer considers the Southern Poverty Law Center an authority on hate-crime investigations. Enough said.—Michael Schaefer

https://twitter.com/RobertBluey/status/879336343414898688

GuideStar CEO Jacob Harold—who also is described on the company’s website as a social change strategist—is trying to play God, if you ask me (“Nonprofit Tracker to Remove ‘Hate Group’ Labels on Conservative Groups for ‘Time Being’”).

He is purposely pushing a social agenda diametrically opposed to the Founding Fathers’ idea of what America should look like. Am I hitting the nail on the head, Mr. Harold? —Kim Edgar Underwood Runyan

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Why are groups that express sincerely held religious beliefs, founded in Holy Writ, labeled as hate groups?—Neill McArthur

After reading Rachel del Guidice’s story on Liberty Counsel’s filing suit against GuideStar (“Defender of Religious Freedom Sues Nonprofit Tracker GuideStar Over ‘Hate Group’ Labels”), I am wondering: When does the Southern Poverty Law Center become labeled a hate group?

There is a lot of hate coming from that organization these days. One thing it doesn’t hate is money: In 2015, the salary of its president and chief executive officer, Richard Cohen, was nearly $350,000. Seems there’s not much poverty at the SPLC.—Rod Frisco

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It is obvious that the SPLC no longer represents its founding principles, but has become the very ideology of hate it used to fight. Sad.—Yvonne Franck Gray

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So great to hear Liberty Counsel is taking GuideStar to court.—Patricia Travitz

The President’s Proposal to Put Solar Panels on the Wall

Dear Daily Signal: I like the idea of combining two separate ideas into one (“How Environmental Groups Are Responding to Trump’s ‘Solar Wall’ Pitch”). Yet I think they should be done apart from each other, and then made to work together for the their intended purposes: solar energy to power all outposts, and maybe even nearby towns, and the border wall to help protect our nation from illegal intrusion.

Putting the solar panels on the wall could become disastrous, or end up being ingenious for future uses for cleaner energy. Maybe the wall not only can help protect our country, but also protect the solar panels. This could be either a great mistake, or a great innovation. But I truly think it is a great idea.—Scott Moore

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That’s a great idea, solar panels on the border wall. Let’s see how well they work in providing electricity for some in that area. Great testing ground for the sustainability of solar panels in the long haul.

Of course, the usual lefties of all stripes will object because President Trump is not of the approved minority or victim class of the moment.

Anyone notice how if one so-called victim class is dealt with, another one comes to the forefront demanding their “rights” to take precedence over everyone else’s? I’m having difficulty keeping a straight face with each new demand from whomever.—Jules P. Guidry

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My biggest issue with the idea of putting solar panels on the wall is that they will be vandalized or stolen almost immediately.—James Bowen

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Actually it wouldn’t be a bad idea if the solar panels weren’t so fragile. I still think confiscated drug money should be used to build the border wall. And since so many other nations have walls, including Mexico I might add, I think it is past time we built one.—Pamela Rich

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People who don’t acknowledge the impact of population growth on the environment have no right to call themselves “environmentalists,” especially the bogus Sierra Club. Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson said those who say they’re for the environment but against limiting immigration—which today represents nearly 90 percent of our population growth—are “phonies.”—Dave Gorak 

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It sounds to me that the assumption for the solar panels on the wall is to generate electricity for the United States. Is anyone talking about using the panels to electrify the fence, so that people didn’t grab hold of it? Just wondering.—Ron Bacon

https://twitter.com/ggeett37aaa/status/878242848272863233

How Are We Doing?

Dear Daily Signal: Election integrity is a very serious matter, indeed, as Fred Lucas reports, as well as is the failure of the mainstream media (“Up to 5.7 Million Noncitizens Voted in Presidential Elections, Study Finds”). I am a long-time supporter of Judicial Watch, and contribute to the American Center for Law and Justice and to The Heritage Foundation as I can, on a fixed income as a retiree and veteran. It does not leave me much room. However, I will contribute as I can to The Daily Signal.

In my view, this country now faces the greatest threat from internal subversion since the Civil War. I am well informed of the nature and progression of the radical left, whose roots go back to communism in the ’60s. Especially troubling is how such a significant percentage of Americans, especially the young, seems to have no perception or concern over the nature of this threat. Keep up your good work.—Evan Tibbott

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You state that you provide only “conservative commentary and policy analysis,” but think of the following you’d have if you gave both sides of the issues, a one-stop shop so to say. You would definitely have my attention.—Davis Pitt  

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Thank you to Fred Lucas for his honest and fair reporting. We need more journalists like him. We’ve got too much fake news that does not even address what is going on in politics, let alone what matters to the public. Keep up the good work.—Catherine Pendergraft

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I enjoy reading your posts, as they are useful. However, I referred one of my left-of-center D.C. “insider” friends to The Daily Signal site and he pointed out in glee that the German army published a magazine called Signal during World War II.

He added that the “S” logo in black at the top of your site tends to echo the old WWII Nazi symbols, “therefore” sending dog whistles to the ultra-right-wing types. I know, really. I am just passing this on. Continued success with The Daily Signal.—Robert Arnold, Sonoma, Calif.

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I do not understand how, in light of the many articles published on unclean voter rolls, the media and Democratic politicians can continue to go unchallenged when spewing, “There is no voter fraud.”—C. Biklip

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I fear for my country!—Johanna

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