- [Interviewer] What year
did you graduate from
the CSU Political Science Department?
Was it a bachelor's, master's or Ph.D?
- I received my bachelor's degree from
Colorado State University
political science department
in 1997.
- [Interviewer] Why'd you
decide to get a degree
in political science?
- I was interested in history,
I was interested in government,
interested in public policy,
and it was just a great way
to mix them all together.
Whether it was foreign
policy, whether it was local
domestic policy, I
thought it was a great way
to study history while also
scratching the political itch.
- [Interviewer] Why does
political science matter?
- Political science
matters because we have
to understand our process,
we have to understand the
history behind that process.
We have to try to do
what we can to understand
the way the American
people think as it relates
to our institutions, and how
our decisions are being made
in the public policy derived from
the people through the
filter of government,
and what results we have after that.
- [Interviewer] What is your current job,
and what makes you
passionate about your work?
- [Interviewer] I'm a
United States senator,
and I come into the
office each and every day,
knowing we have to do a better
job for the American people,
so that they know they
have greater opportunities
ahead of them, and not just behind them.
- [Interviewer] What political
science related issue
do you care about the most?
- Again, I think it's
understanding the American people,
the results that we achieve
through these great institutions.
It's preserving these institutions
that have been hard-fought
for over 200 years.
Those things that we study,
comparative politics,
those things that we
study and our introduction
to political science, they
all matter in the work that
we do in these incredible
democratic institutions today.
- [Interviewer] What person,
or group of people have been
the most influential
in your career so far?
- I think my family obviously,
I've had very strong
relationships with women in my life.
Whether it's my wife,
whether it's my mother,
whether it's my grandmothers.
I had a great fortunate
experience of living
in a small town where everybody around me
was very much a part of all
the activities that I pursued
and were very supportive of that.
- [Interviewer] If you could
have dinner with anyone
in your field, who would it be, and why?
- This is kind of out
of the field question,
because it's impossible to have dinner
with this person right
now, but Winston Churchill,
to try to understand so
many of the challenges
we face today in the middle east.
He was there in the days after
World War I, Gertrude Bell,
others who really helped
draw the script, so to speak,
for some of the challenges
that we face today.
I would love to understand
some of the decisions that they made.
- [Interviewer] What advice
would you give to someone
who wants to pursue a
degree in political science?
- That you can do
anything with this degree.
This is a very much an open
canvas in terms of this degree.
Whether it's law school
that you want to pursue,
whether it's education,
whether it's research,
or whether it's public service,
I think this gives you a great
background and understanding
how the rule of law, and why
it matters, is so important
to this country, and of
course, how you can take that
knowledge of our institutions'
democratic processes
and put it to work in terms of
good for the American people.
- [Interviewer] If you could
spend a year in any country
studying their politics,
what country would it be?
- It would be fascinating to spend a year
in Myanmar, in Burma.
That country has gone from
a koo junta leadership
to a civilian leadership
with significant challenges.
Challenges that may not lead
to a peaceful transition
of power in the next couple of years.
And of course, the ethnic
cleansing that has been taken
place in that country is a global tragedy,
and more must be done to stop it.
So to be able to spend time there,
to understand what can be
done to stop the atrocities,
to bring peace, and a
civilian government stability,
that would be pretty remarkable.
- [Interviewer] What is, or what was,
your favorite thing about CSU?
- I loved the comradery, I
loved the academic setting.
Fort Collins is an amazing
town, and of course,
go Rams, you can't go wrong.
Watching the game at the new stadium,
and enjoying the legacy
that my family has had,
all who have attended
Colorado State University.
The political science
department obviously,
had a great impact on me and
I wanna thank Dr. Strayer,
and the impact that he had on
me, and generations of leaders
in Colorado through the
intern program at the capital,
it was a remarkable experience.
Many of the lessons I learned
then, still apply today.
And I've also grown quite
fond of a number of other
political science professors
at Colorado State University
and I'll never forget
people like, Dr. Crabtree,
or even professors of my dad at CSU.
So it's been a great legacy at CSU.
