Back in the early days of the civil rights movement Albany (pronounced “all-BENNY by the locals, some of whom are my cousins) Georgia, police chief Laurie Pritchett earned a reputation as a “moderate” who, according to Stanford’s King Encyclopedia, “ordered his officers to enforce the law without using violence in public.” He defeated the Albany Movement in large part by “refraining from public brutality and thereby minimizing negative publicity.” The King Encyclopedia doesn’t mention it, but veterans of the civil rights movement used to say that the definition of a “moderate” Southern police chief was one who beat them up only when he was mad at them and only in private.
To the best of my knowledge Peter Beinart hasn’t beaten up anyone lately, in public or private, but I nevertheless thought of Laurie Pritchett when reading Beinart’s recent “Reminder: Not All Republican Opposition to Obama Is Racist.” These days a moderate, or at least open minded, liberal is one who is willing to acknowledge in public that at least some Republican opposition to Obama is not racist.
