Ryan Seward

I am Ryan Seward, candidate for the Texas State House of Representatives, District 94 which encompasses Arlington, Dalworthington Gardens, and Pantego. I was born and raised in Arlington and am currently a senior at the University of Texas at Arlington, majoring in music.

My interest in politics began in my early high school years when I became close friends with a Japanese-American student whose grandparents were forcibly removed from their small restaurant business in Northern California to a Japanese-American internment camp. This student was also a relative of Fred Korematsu, from the monumental Supreme Court case, Korematsu v. United States, which addressed the constitutionality of President Roosevelt's Executive Order to have Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps to protect the country from espionage and treasonous acts of malevolence towards the United States. Outraged by the outright injustice and xenophobic aesthetic of the American Justice System, I began rapidly involving myself in organizations like the Tarrant County Young Democrats and the UNT chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

At 18, I ran an unsuccessful campaign as a write-in candidate for Arlington City Council, District 8. That summer, I worked with a friend on Ralph Nader's presidential campaign as a petition gatherer. From the outset, I began to see that the hegemonic apparatus of the two-party system was inherently flawed and only sought to pursue policy that benefited the preservation of an oligarchic ruling class whose autonomy exerts incomprehensible influence on the legislative and democratic process. Seeing how difficult it was to get an Independent candidate on the ballot, as well as finding any kind of outlet for media exposure, was increasingly frustrating to my perspective on the current political landscape and the corporate-run media that seeks to maintain the entire illusion of order and consent.

Another petition-gathering effort the next summer for Fair Districts Florida (an incognito lobbying group for the Florida Democrat Party) further allowed me to see the gerrymandering tactics and demographic exclusion that was taking place not only in Florida, but all over the United States. As a result, many low income communities were being represented by congresspeople from surrounding affluent communities who did not understand nor care about the political opinions of the people in these low income communities. This is when I decided that third-party politics were absolutely fundamental to real progressive change in this country.

District 94 has been under a stranglehold of regressive, corporatist rhetoric that has espoused the profits-over-people mantra for far too long. In the elections of 1992, 1998, 2000, and 2002, Republicans for Texas House District 94 have run unopposed. In fact, there has only been Democratic opposition in the elections of 1994, 2004, and 2006. Now, in 2010, with only the opposition of a Republican and a Libertarian, Texans in District 94 have the opportunity to vote for a true progressive candidate who seeks to end the nepotistic, "good ol' boy" political cronyism that has been pervasive in North Texas politics for far too long.

As a candidate of the Green Party of Texas, I support the following local issues:

• Pursuing political reform through ballot access reform legislation (Instant Run-Off Voting and Proportional Representation)
• Expanding community media to disallow corporate-run media from prohibiting and regulating meaningful political discourse
• Reforming the Children's Health Insurance Program and extending that coverage to adult parents with the end goal of universal single-payer healthcare
• Vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws, the aggressive prosecution of "hate crimes," and the strengthening of legal services for the poor to allow fair legal representation regardless of socioeconomic status
• A sustainable conservationist outlook toward the management of Arlington's parks and wildlife areas as well as proper waste management
• A comprehensive legalization program for all undocumented men, women, and children currently living in Texas
• Adopting a carbon pollution tax
• A comprehensive public transportation system for the city of Arlington, the largest city in the United States not served by a comprehensive public transportation system
• Ending local gas drilling in favor of the pursuance of clean energy technologies such as solar and wind
• Repealing the Taft-Hartley anti-union law, giving back the right to workers of the State of Texas to collectively bargain without reprisal

These, among a host of other issues, are tantamount to propelling Texas toward a future of egalitarianism, prosperity, and true democratic participation. Together, we can build a truly progressive apparatus and put an end to the exploitative and ineffective political oligarchy that currently impedes our collective ideals.