What's the proper response to extremists?

Listening to NPR this morning, I heard an interview with a Tea Party representative (who sounded reassuringly logical, despite my disdain for the movement) and Bryan Fischer, of the American Family Association, who sounded intolerant, inflexible, and just plain hateful. I’ll admit, all of his beliefs are antithetical to my own, but even trying to accept that people have values other than my own, I just can’t get around my perception that he espouses bigotry, hate, and intolerance. Every one of his points (in my opinion) is based on the oppression of some segment of our society. I guess what I’m asking is, is my response to this individual appropriate? If I find him a total waste of carbon, does that make me just as bad a person as he is? How can a society with such diametrically opposed segments ever be truly functional?