John Washington III: Politicians Who Forgot the People Should Not Ask the People to Fight for Them

John Washington III is rejecting a familiar election-season request. For years, he wrote, politicians have passed laws that take more money from the public's pockets and strip away their rights — and now, he argued, some of those same politicians want the American people to stand up and fight for them as the system turns on them. "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN WE NEEDED YOU?" he wrote.

John Washington III framed the relationship as one that runs in a single direction. "We elected you to fight for US, not become part of the very system hurting us!" he wrote, saying that every election brings appeals for votes, money and loyalty — and that once those politicians win, they turn their backs on the people. "WHAT DO WE HAVE TO SHOW FOR IT?" he wrote.

He drew a line on whose battles he will fight. "I'm done fighting to save political careers while everyday Americans struggle to protect their rights and freedoms," John Washington III wrote. "YOUR POLITICAL BATTLES ARE NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY!" His own fight, he said, is for the public rather than for officeholders: "I'm fighting for the PEOPLE, not politicians who forgot who they work for!"

John Washington III, a 2028 presidential candidate, closed with the order of authority as he sees it — "YOU WORK FOR US. WE DON'T WORK FOR YOU!" — and a refrain in capital letters: "THE PEOPLE COME FIRST. PERIOD!"