I wonder if Paine was aware of the irony in that quote by his indirect reference to the ultimate invented king.

> People simply can't wait to anoint their own personal king

You really think there are only 1% of us that have no desire at all for any sort of king? I cannot think of a single person deserving of that role, cannot imagine what it would take for me to change my mind. I very much value our systems of government, and I do not ever want any one person to have too much control over them.

I don't think it's necessary to take the OP literally, but directionally it's correct. Looking at American society, the Trumps, Kardashians, Clintons, Roosevelts, Kennedys ... for a country that's so proudly republican, how many of their presidents and elites have been blood related? Might add Jesus to the list metaphorically

People Americans hoist into power (and many other countries do) often look like a poor man's replacement for a monarch. How many people in any country do actually lay claim to their own values and conscience? How many are genuinely emancipated and govern themselves?

In particular in this day and age where most of the wannabe kings are so obviously idiotic it's telling how eager people still are to subject themselves, sometimes in, as David Bentley Hart dubbed it crypto-erotic fashion, almost sadomasochistic and fully aware how incapable the demagogues are.