Here we have another gravely flawed idiom that ought to be deconstructed. The meaning is pretty clear. The idiom basically says this:
Translation: “Really important powerful people don’t have to bother to listen to what common people think”
Not only should this immediately smack of ad hominem, but it’s a bit worse than that. This idiom gives the powerful reason to ignore reason, and ignore popular vote.
It’s anti-democratic, which is a small problem, but not absolutely definitively wrong.
It is absolutely definitively wrong because it supposes that the powerful inherently have more sound judgement than the weak. Talk about an attempt to maintain the status quo. The idiom deliberately seeks to avoid listening to reasonable arguments based on an ad hominem principle that goes something like this:
“Common/weak people inherently possess weaker arguments than the powerful”
I shouldn’t need to spell it out anymore than that.
Do society a favor, anytime you hear someone use this idiom, laugh at them for using it.