That's The Way Of The World

File under unfortunate, but unavoidable, perhaps.

Charles Johnson versus a large number of conservative blogs, some of whom call him a "former conservative," or something.

I'm not in the mood to take a side on this one, though I do believe some of CJ's particular criticisms of Beck have it wrong from what I've read. A few thoughts, though.

Neither Conservatives, nor Republicans should be taking advice from items like this Cohen piece at Politico. They come with an agenda of their own.

As for the feud mentioned above, WTF have people been smoking out here all this time? Much of the Right side of the blogosphere, as it came to be defined, was never about Conservatism. It was about 9/11 and later fighting a war. The actual politics of several thus aligned blogs and bloggers were never Conservative, so it is inaccurate to call them turn coats now. Argue with them if you wish, debate them, whatever. But don't call them names they are not.

Make what you will of this perhaps former conglomeration of Conservatives, hawkish moderates, libertarians and perhaps even hawkish liberals. But for heaven's sake, have the intelligence to understand it for what it is. Failing to do that only makes you look dumb.

This split is utterly predictable and was predicted by many bloggers over the years including me. With the WOT slipping from the headlines and a new administration, people are simply being who they always were politically. How this all ends up is hard to say just now. But it's a shake up, or a re-alignment that has always had to take place one day.

That day has arrived. As the post title and the song below both say - that's the way of the world. Deal with it - hopefully as constructively as you can.

Comments

[Hawkins]

I don't find Johnson to be a "former" anything, he just has a difference of opinion on Creationism, and Glenn Beck than most, but his blog was set up to be a watchdog on creeping Islamofacism.

I find Glenn Beck to be a bit of a knuckleheaded ideologue with not a lot of facts at disposal but without the charm of Hannity. I find Hannity's radio show repetitive and grating (everything goes back to Ayers and Wright..etc.)

I think this is once again us playing a game in which the left sets the rules. You have to have this label, and if you don't, you have to defend why.

I don't care about outing non-believers, I would rather have someone take a leadership role that can articulate our beliefs. The latter seems more productive.

[SallyVee]

Another appropriate song might be: Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right... here I am stuck in the middle with... Dan and a handful of other normal people.

Beck is an embarrassing tool who gets a few kernels right, then proceeds to discredit himself and his ideas with unbearably bad acting and deranged ranting. Politico is simply a hideous hack shack. Never trust a single word there.

My speed is Brian Lamb/Q&A and Gigot/Henninger/Strassel on the WSJ Roundtable. But that audience segment doesn't rate enough to keep the lights on. Nope, it's the jokers and clowns who rake it in and give people a little tingle with every visit.

[Rick]

I tired of Little Green Footballs a while ago. The repetitive Creationism posts were boring. The "Hatchlings" thing was over the top.

[BlackRedneck]

Rick, ditto on the whole Creationism thing. It's so tedious.

I find it amazing that they keep calling Glenn Reynolds a "conservative" even though he states quite clearly that he is not a conservative. And don't even get me started on Andrew Sullivan, the gay, anti-Christian, anti-Pope, gay-marriage supporting "spokesman" for the "conservative" movement.

As a wise person said, "your actions speak so loud, I can't hear what you're saying." At this point, I'm only interested in supporting those individuals or groups that advance my goals.

[Alex]

Eh, Beck is what he is. I like him for the most part, until the other day when he announced he was going to "update" Common Sense by T. Paine....idiotic to say the least. Plus he working on some piece of art he's going to unveil. But he has some things right and did predict the credit fiasco we're in now almost two years ago. As for CJ, I stopped going there almost 3 years ago, once his site started to be more of a hit piece on creationism. Talk about a moot point when it comes to fighting the dems. Oh well, I think Dan is right in his take on the whole thing.

[Terrence]

I used to read LGF regularly; but now, I only check it occasionally - just to make sure Charles is still aggressive, obsessive, defensive, paranoid, delusional, and irrelevant. And, he always is; the only change is that he is getting hysterical, and really, really, really, really, repetitive. And boring.

There are way too many good, informative and interesting sites (like Riehl World) to waste time on LGF.

[Tman]

There is a big problem with libertarian and conservative messages being completely twisted by the left in to this sick idea that it is responsible for things like the recent shooting deaths, or any other wacko christian nutjob out there, among others. The left has been able to not only manipulate the message, but also completely obscure what their message really IS responsible for, things like welfare dependency and "social equity".

What disappointed me about Charles was his argument that Republicans should be aiming more for the middle and disagreeing with the right when people like Rush hope that Obama fails, as if they haven't been doing this already, and getting destroyed in the process. This is a classic case of the message getting skewered and Charles allowing it to happen. Charles complained about people putting words in his mouth, but he assailed Beck for pushing the stupid "FEMA camps" conspiracy. Turns out Beck was DEBUNKING the conspiracy, not pushing it. Charles put a minor footnote on one post to correct this, but the damage was already done, and he bought the message manipulation full sale.

As others have noted Charles has been an invaluable source in cataloging the rise of Islamofascism, but I've never been under the impression he's either conservative or Republican, much the same with Glenn. Dan nails it that this was entirely predictable, once the country started to revert back to 9/10 attitudes.

[seekeronos]

Charles Johnson of LGF = godless atheist who is at best, a neo-conservative... his main claim to fame was putting a spotlight on creeping Islamism.

Glenn Beck is a bit informative, but might be best taken with a pinch of salt on some things. For now, he is a visible and audible voice that Paleo-conservatives can tolerate.

Andrew "Milky Loads" Sullivan is a nutjob, pure and simple.

[Gary Ogletree]

Let's not dismiss Charles Johnson so quickly. He is very good at what he is good at. He also alerted us to the Aryan Nation types in Europe who have joined the anti-jihad movement. People I like say stupid things about darling Sarah Palin. I heard Steve Forbes carefully avoid mentioning her as a 2012 candidate. But Forbes still has a lot to contribute. Newt Gingrich makes me cringe sometimes with his stupidity, but in many ways he gets it. And with O'Reilly it's always about O'Reilly. But who else put such heat on child molesters and their judicial and legislative enablers? Hannity's endless agitated preaching and moral pomposity wears me out, but he does get it most of the time. So let's fuss and bitch, but save our live ammunition for RHINOs and the fools who vote for the wannabe Dictator's program. Orin Hatch comes to mind.