The conservative blogosphere has been creaming its collective jeans over TV host Mike Rowe’s “epic” smackdown of a liberal Facebook troll, who had spammed Rowe’s posts, apparently incensed that the CNN personality had occasionally voted Republican. The troll, identifying himself as “Jim Green” and using a lot of capital letters, demanded that Rowe justify how a Christian could ever vote for a GOP candidate (whilst simultaneously shilling for Green’s own ebook).

Rowe posted the following from 37,000 feet:

Despite what the likes of Glenn Beck would have you believe, this was anything but a triumph of GOP values over liberalism, but just the victory of an articulate and polite television personality over a garden variety internet troll.

Jim Green doesn’t represent mainstream liberalism views any more than the lady Senate candidate who suggests “Second Amendment remedies” to deal with the “tyranny” of the Obama administration represents the mainstream Republican viewpoint. His brand of invective is all too common on the interwebs, both from the left and the right, and Rowe’s reply could be just as effective, with a little modification, against Tea Party trolls.

That’s because he’s right.

It doesn’t entirely surprise me that Mike Rowe might vote Republican from time to time, and that doesn’t mark him a fascist or a gullible rube. However, I think a day is coming when more conservative-leaning independents like Rowe start to realize that the dysfunctional train wreck that is the current GOP doesn’t faithfully represent their values anymore. I don’t know who’s going to win the civil war between mainstream conservatives and loose cannons like Ted Cruz, but if the winners are people more like Mike Rowe, the world will be a better place.