John Wolfe, Jr.

John Wolfe, Jr. Democratic Candidate for President 2012

John Wolfe, Jr. (D-POTUS)

John Wolfe, Jr. Statement on why he is running.

Barack Obama’s leadership has been shaped too much by the office and too little by the ideals that got him there. Sadly, no one is leading the way to restore progressive values in our country’s top office.

I, for one, will not stand idly by.

We need an alternative to what we have in the current club of presidential candidates – what I call the duopoly of Democrats and Republicans who sadly have shown little difference on the critical issues facing America today.

President Obama must restore the progressive values of the Democratic Party. Or, we need new leadership.

The interests of the Pentagon, Wall Street, and corporations have dominated Obama’s administration. And loyal Americans, taxpayers and small businesses are paying a heavy price as a result.

The President has rightly calculated that we are not safer, nor is democracy more secure, based on the number of boots we have on the ground. But, we are not seeing military spending go down as our troops come home. Instead it has increased exponentially. Just last week, Obama authorized the largest military budget since World War II. This trend must be reversed.

The Occupy movement, which has spread to every state in the country, erupted because of the overwhelming inequality that exists between the excesses of Wall Street and the average taxpayer – a gap of both wealth and ethics that we have come to accept as a necessary evil.

But we don’t have to accept it. We cannot continue to reward abysmal incompetence with billions of dollars of near zero-interest bailout loans, used to stabilize a crumbling financial infrastructure and pay wages and bonuses that outstrip the president’s own salary by more than a hundred times and the average American’s income by one thousand times!

Rather than distancing himself from their failures, Obama has rewarded Wall Street incompetents with more White House jobs than even George W. Bush did in his administration. JP Morgan, GE and others got hundreds of millions in bailout cash. At the same time, their executives are being given seats of influence in the White House, reinforcing the cycle of government ties to, and the need to prop up, these “too big to fail” conglomerates.

These obscene costs to the American people come at a time when corporations are carrying the smallest tax burden in the history of this country. Today, corporate taxes cover just 9% of the nation’s GNP, whereas just 50 years ago, they paid 26%. They have shrunk their contribution and at the same time have multiplied in size. The astronomical difference comes right out of the pockets of you and me and further feeds the $15 trillion deficit we are leaving for our children.

We are not on the right path. And people are tired of those in power kneeling to the interests of war, Wall Street and big business.

This John Doe wants to see the Democratic Party stand up and take notice.

I am running for President to send just that message.