Politics & Power Quote by Rich Lowry

Lowry’s line works like a bit of political stage direction: in America, “liberalism” is backstage, “centrism” is the costume, and “cultural conservatism” is the lighting that makes the actor look electable. The phrasing “doesn’t sell” is the tell. Politics isn’t treated as persuasion or governance here, but as retail: branding, packaging, and aversion to a toxic label. “Typically” gives him plausible deniability against exceptions while still asserting a rule of the game.

The subtext is a familiar conservative critique with a twist of grudging realism: Democrats aren’t losing because their policies fail; they’re losing because the word “liberal” is an albatross, so they smuggle their agenda through a centrist identity and a culturally reassuring posture. “Run as” implies performance, not conviction. It suggests a class of candidates who code-switch on guns, religion, crime, or national identity to neutralize Republican attacks and calm swing voters. That’s less an accusation of hypocrisy than a claim that the market punishes ideological candor.

The context is decades of American asymmetry in political labeling: “conservative” often reads as temperamentally normal, “liberal” as suspect or elitist, a hangover from Cold War rhetoric and culture-war polarization. Lowry, as an editor, is also shaping an argument about power: if liberal candidates must disguise themselves to compete, then conservatism has already won something deeper than elections - the terms of legitimacy.