Politics & Power Quote by Mortimer Zuckerman

Zuckerman’s line is less a lament about bureaucracy than a strategic reframing of inequality: the real divide, he argues, isn’t just rich versus poor, but private-sector strivers versus a protected governing class. The phrase “essential faith in government” sets the stakes high, implying legitimacy itself is on the line. Then he introduces “two Americas,” a familiar political trope, but he flips its usual target. Instead of focusing on corporate power or inherited wealth, he positions the “new public sector elite” as the suspect beneficiaries of a rigged system.

The intent is clear: redirect resentment away from markets and toward the state. “Subsidizes” is the key verb, borrowing the moral heat of welfare debates and applying it to government workers, regulators, and adjacent professional classes. It suggests an unfair transfer - not merely taxes funding services, but one group’s labor underwriting another group’s “disproportionate benefits.” That language does cultural work: it turns complex public compensation structures, pensions, and institutional job security into a story of parasitism and privilege.

As a publisher and longtime business-friendly commentator, Zuckerman is operating in a post-recession atmosphere where distrust in institutions is already simmering. The subtext isn’t that government is inherently bad; it’s that government has been captured by insiders who write rules for themselves while claiming to serve everyone else. The line functions as a warning and a wedge: if Americans feel played, they won’t just oppose specific policies - they’ll withdraw consent from the whole project of governance.