It seems that I almost missed a flame war in the conservative blogosphere. Charles Johnson, of Little Green Footballs, does not get along any longer with Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs, nor with Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. It now seems that neoconservative bloggers in general have joined the fun: they’re on the side of Spencer and Geller, and busily condemning Johnson.

Although Johnson is certainly right to call out racists, xenophobes, and generalizing religions in general, I disagree with his take on Glenn Beck. I don’t think Beck hurts the conservative movement as much as he helps it. Every movement has its fringes, its more radical and less rational talking heads. Beck is a prime libertarian example of this rule. There are others on the liberal side of the political equation, however. Keith Olbermann comes to mind. Yet, you never hear liberal bloggers go after Olbermann and his ilk. The reason is simple: he may not be the most stable person in the world, but eating your own (when they do not engage in hate speech, racism, etc.) is not just useless, it is counterproductive. Additionally, there are many voters who listen to these people, and who can be relied upon to volunteer when campaign season arrives.

Now don’t get me wrong. I think Beck is crazy, or he’s at least pretending to be. But he’s not causing anyone any harm, he is not dangerous. Xenophobes, racists, white supremacists, and so on are dangerous.  Conservatives should be careful not to be associated with them. Johnson has proved to be great at warning conservatives for such radical groups and individuals. However, Beck is not one of them. He is  an extremely libertarian talk show host who rants about the constantly increasing size of the federal government. If you’re libertarian, you can’t possibly be happy with Obama. And libertarians tend to vote Republican – their votes matter.

But unlike some, they do not plan to round up opponents, people of other faiths, those with a different skin color either. Rather, a libertarian like Beck wants maximum freedom. That may not be realistic today, but it is not dangerous either.

Let the man do his thing.

Other than that, Donald Douglas and others should stop going after Johnson (and people like Rick Moran who seems to agree more than disagree with Johnson these days). He is one of the leading conservative members of the blogosphere. He’s anti-Islamic extremism, anti-terrorism, pro-tolerance, anti-hate, anti-racism, anti-xenophobia, pro-conservative values, economic and social freedom. He belongs in the conservative movement, and he was right to warn the so-called “anti-Jihad” and the “conservative” blogospheres against the dangers of racist movements, both in the U.S. and Europe.

Stop waging war on the man, and embrace him for what he is: a great conservative blogger, who understands that the war on extremism isn’t a war on all those who belong to a certain religion (in this case Islam), who believes extremism and intolerance of all kinds have to be opposed, and who’s able to defend Western values and conservative principles in a rational, tolerant and calm demeanor. We need more, not less of those.

Do not attack each other when not absolutely necessary (because someone is crossing the line of decency): you’re blowing up your own movement.