The King of Mean

Who exactly is the King of Mean?

On this the tax day in the USA when it is the turn of the federal government to pick the pockets of working Americans taking away from them about one-third of their hard-earned money, it is befitting to answer the question used to title this entry by making some comparisons going all the way to the point of origin where such a concept was born, recalling one of the most (in)famous women in US history, the one and only Leona Helmsley:

“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes”

Leona Helmsley is remembered today as The Queen of Mean.

That was way back in 1989. Almost three decades later we have her alter ego to worry about:

“I fight like hell not to pay (taxes),”

Yessiree, let the little people pay their taxes. Let them bear the brunt of sustaining the weight of the federal government, perhaps the most expensive government on planet Earth. Let the little people keep the US government afloat, while savvy entrepreneurs like Donald Trump avoid paying their fair share. He avoided the draft letting other young men serve their country in order to keep the US secure for the benefit of a tiny minority of well-to-do billionaires like Donald Trump, and to top it off avoid also paying the fair share of taxes needed to send young men into harm’s way with the best equipment possible in order to ensure their safe return home. Why should The King of Mean contribute anything when there are lots of little people out there willing to do their share, willing even to die for their country unlike the billionaires who are in no disposition to die for their country?

It helps, of course, to keep tax returns from prying eyes during an election year. Astonishingly, the new King of Mean as been able to dupe millions of working Americans, many of them blue-collar workers, leading them to believe that he is really Mister Nice Guy. Understandably, many of his followers lack a college degree and seldom go to the libraries except to read the Sunday funnies. His enormous popularity in spite of what he really is and what he really stands for as well as an ignorance of the true impact of his plan for America will remain as a puzzling paradox that will keep academicians and political analysts busy for centuries.

Hail the new King of Mean! Leona Helmsley would be proud of him, no doubt about it.