Politics & Power Quote by Mort Sahl

Mort Sahl’s line is a scalpel: it flatters conservatives with the respectable word “reform,” then yanks it away with the deadpan punchline, “But not now.” The joke isn’t that conservatives hate change; it’s that they’ve learned to brand themselves as the responsible adults in the room while practicing a politics of perpetual postponement. “Not now” is the whole strategy compressed into two words: delay as ideology, caution as camouflage, incrementalism as an excuse to never arrive.

The intent is less to dunk on a tribe than to expose a rhetorical maneuver. Calling yourself pro-reform lets you borrow the moral prestige of progress without paying its cost. Sahl’s framing suggests conservatism often treats reform like a promissory note - always payable at a later date, after the economy stabilizes, after the crisis passes, after the public calms down. Conveniently, it’s never later enough.

Context matters: Sahl came up in mid-century America, when Cold War anxiety, civil rights demands, and expanding federal power made “reform” both necessary and terrifying. His comedy fed on the gap between public language and private intent - the new TV era’s polished assurances versus the old machinery of entrenched interests. The line also stings because it implicates a broader political habit: institutions don’t just resist change by arguing against it; they resist by agreeing with it in principle, then burying it under procedure, timing, and decorum.

It’s a cynical joke with an ethical edge: if you always believe in reform “but not now,” you’ve effectively chosen the status quo while keeping your self-image clean.