Ryan Believes Voters Are Looking For Other Choices

Nick Ryan is running as a Libertarian for Iowa House District 79.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Iowa House 79 Candidate Nick Ryan has had an interest in politics and policy making for several years now. He’s been active with Republican campaigns and worked at fundraising for several conservative candidates.

Ryan decided to step out of that shadow to tell his vision for Iowan’s. Voters in District 79 will have three options when they go to the polls this fall. “Yes, Finally,” said Ryan.

Ryan is running as a Libertarian, against Republican Dustin Hite, and Democrat Samantha Keith.

Ron Paul and his son Rand Paul are two well known Libertarian politicians.

“The core message of Libertarianism is a couple of things. One is we call it the non-aggression policy. That is nobody should be interfering with the ability of somebody to live their life they want so long as they are not harming others. The use of force and aggression on somebody else who’s not bothering anybody else is immoral and wrong. That’s kind of a central core principal within Libertarianism that you kind of use as a jumping off point,” says Ryan. “The other would be self-ownership and self-governance. Again, if you’re not bothering anybody, nobody should be bothering you.”

A couple of examples Ryan used to explain Libertarianism would be: Projects that utilize eminent domain are “an unnecessary force. I don’t think that’s right. Another one would be, if you’re sitting in your house smoking a joint, not bothering anybody, nobody should be bothering you.”

“Shrinking the size and scope and cost of government is one of the best ways we can restore individual liberty.”

The roots in Ryan’s decision to run can be traced back to the regional airport being developed by Pella and Oskaloosa. “I feel that moving this project forward is, especially with Mahaska County not being involved, or not wanting to be involved in that project anymore, is wrong. I feel like it’s theft. I’m pretty sure the landowners feel the same way. I think there’s a lot of people in the district that feel the same way.”

28E agreements, like the one used to create the regional airport, are something else that Ryan has issue with. “Right now, we have another problem that chapter 28E of the Iowa Code is at the center of, and that’s with the 911 center here. Nobody can really agree on who’s going to be paying for what. The people on the boards, the Mahaska County Supervisors, nobody can seem to figure this thing out or come to an agreement on it, and I think that’s largely due to just the lack of clarity and transparency and understandability of the 28E code.”

Ryan says that the 28E code allows the government to expand itself. “These political subdivisions and government agencies can come together under a 28E agreement without a public vote if they so choose and form an entirely new entity. I don’t think that’s in the best interest of anybody.”

“Full disclosure, I’ve gone to jail twice for possessing less than minuscule amount of cannabis,” says Ryan. “That experience not only cost me a lot of money, it made it hard to get a job.”

“I wasn’t hurting anybody. I wasn’t doing anything unsafe at the time. The impact that can have when you take somebody’s liberty away, lock them in a cage for doing something that’s not harming anybody else, and then you fine them and you limit their economic opportunity by making them check a box on a job application. I think that causes more harm than good.”

“And then on the other side of that, if you look at states that are leading the charge in cannabis reform, particularly Washington. They’ve seen that legalization has a tremendous effect on reducing violent crime, particularly domestic abuse, which unfortunately around here, it’s a relatively big problem.”

Ryan believes that cannabis reform would “open the doors up to a thriving industry that’s creating a ton of jobs, bringing in a ton of economic prosperity to these places that have jumped onboard and finally accepted the fact that it’s immoral to lock people up for this.”

“I think that it’s a real shame, with Iowa being the agricultural stronghold that it is, that we’re not leading the charge on this. Not only are we hurting people, we’re leaving tax revenue on the table, and jobs on the table that I really think Iowa should be a leader in.”

When it comes to taxation in general, “My personal feelings on taxation, is that taxation is theft. The reason I say that is because the only thing that separates the government from a collection agency, a private collection agency, is they have the authorization of use of force. If you don’t pay your taxes, a guy with a gun will show up at your door and haul you off to jail. That to me is an act of aggression.”

“Now, that being said, I’m also a realist, and I understand that government is a fact of life and that it costs money to operate, but it has spun so far out of control. It continues to expand, and it continues to grow. We continue to just add, and add, and add regulations and legislation.”

Ryan says he believes the government is there to provide things like roads and sewers, along with emergency services and public safety. “In an ideal world to me, we can get to a point where we see a lot of these things more localized, being more voluntary, paid for by cooperatives of private citizens to private companies that specialize in doing some of these things rather than having the government being the middle man and sucking a bunch of money.”

Ryan believes that with government being the middleman, money is being spent just to “sustain and operate the middleman and the bureaucracy that’s managing it all.”

When it comes to running the government, Ryan believes that we need “To start putting some of the differences aside. Using our liberty and our personal liberty and freedom as a jumping off point to have a real discussion and a quality debate about these things and see if we can come to a solution and a compromise with each other that leans more toward freedom and liberty.”

“I think that we’re at a point right now where people are tired of the way things have been going. People are tired of seeing a big chunk of their paycheck just gone right off the top. If you were to not allow employers to withhold the taxes from the paycheck, and you made each pay their taxes out of pocket, there would be a revolution overnight.”