Steven Garza: How to Represent

So and Stephen and the rest of the family. They don't have a power and water for like four days, so it would be safe. You're probably your son. Thank you, sir, Thank you, sir. Hi to missus Hillary Clinton, I will thank you. The summer of nineteen sixty three, between my junior and senior years of high school, was one of

the most formative periods of my life. I was seriously considering pursuing a life in public service at the time that I attended Boy State, a program sponsored by the American Legion along with the American Legion Auxiliaries Girls State. This program brings high school juniors together to learn how government works and to experience for themselves what it takes

to run for office and then to serve. Attendees are divided into two fictional political parties, then Nate draft platforms, hold elections for local and state offices, and vote on issues in legislative sessions. At the end of the week, two senators are elected to represent their state at Boys Nation,

held later in the summer. I was lucky enough to be one of the two from Arkansas by the nine, giving me the chance to visit Washington for the first time, meet fascinating people from all over the country, and even shake hands with President Kennedy. So why am I telling you this? Because Boys State and Boys Nation helped to teach me from a young age that democracy requires us

to get off the sidelines and into the arena. In perfect as it may be, we can't take this system of ours for granted, and if we want to make it better and make a difference in people's lives, we need to stand up, show up, and speak up, day after day and year after year. Today I'm joined by a remarkable young man whose own experience at Boy State

is inspiring people across America. Stephen Garza is the breakout star and in many ways, the hero, of the critically acclaimed documentary Boy State, which follows a thousand boys from across Texas in the summer of as they met to learn how to build a representative democracy from the ground up. In the film, Stephen shows us the value of believing in yourself and your principles, the power of honest dialogue, the bridge art divides, and how we can breathe new

life into our democracy. Stephen became the first high school graduate in his family and is now a sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin. He has the strongest are to take what he's learned to serve as community and to be an advocate for others. Stephen, thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for that wonderful introduction, Mr President, and thank you for taking some time to say hi to my mom, who's a

big fan. Perhaps we could start by telling us how the storm has affected you and your family and how you're doing, and what's your reaction to it all is um Like many Texans, it was a very rough week last week for some Texans. It was a deadly week. Are power went out at about two o'clock in the morning on Monday and didn't come back fully until about

Wednesday night. Our water went out Tuesday and when it came back, we realized that about seven pipes in our house had broken, one of them actually above my bed and one of them in my closets. So it wasn't very um pleasant to deal with. And it's it's been, um, I mean a rough few years to to you know, especially being a Houstonian living through these climate events again. And in seventeen we had Hurricane Harvey completely decimate the

city once in a thousand years storm. And now, you know, two or three years later, now we have this once in a generation winner storm. Uh. And these once in a generation, once in the like time events are becoming, uh, you know, once every couple of years, you know, in Texas and all across the country. And addressing you know, human activity in the climate, UH is instrumental in tackling that.

And there's just a good quote that I've seen going around is that, um that you shouldn't place people who don't believe in government in charge of government, otherwise you end up with situations like we just had and people don't believe that government can be used as a source for good and and positive change in people's lives. Well, I agree with that. I mean, it's just such an

easy I felt. We may have cultural differences, and we may have, you know, factual arguments about whether this or that policy would work or not, but hating the government

as a loser. I mean, I remember we it reached a fever pitch in the United States when I served in when the new Gingrich and his group, when the House and the Senate, and then the fever broke a little after the Oklahoma City bombing, and people realize, all these people that got killed with his government protests, including their children in preschool in the building, We're just like them. They had jobs to do when they were helping, and we needed their help. We needed them to do what

they were doing. So I agree with that. I think that one of the things I'd like to see your generation do. We need to start asking people what the government do. If you want to have a great nation, if you want America to be great, and you wanted to be a place of opportunity and growth, there are no examples of that anywhere on Earth, in countries that do not have strong effective governments to do certain things.

In other words, if you want a strong private sector, or precondition of it as having a strong and effective government, So how how much do you think what you experienced that Boy State mirrored what you see going on in the real world today, and how and how much of it was different. My experiences at Boy State were I mean,

very very very positive ones. I mean I I went into the program with a being in the racial and political minority um and knowing that this is a conservative white elector at that I have to to speak to and to be elected from. And my strategy was to appeal to their sense of of of service and their sense of patriotism. Uh that we didn't want to see this country go to the point that it inevitably ended up going to on January six. We didn't want a

civil war, you know. When there was Toxic Succession of Boys State, as much of a joke as it could have been. To me, I found it very disrespectful of the legionnaires. The American Legion hosts Texas Boys State. The Legion is made up of veterans of armed armed services. To succeed is to dishonor the memories and make their sacrifices in vain. We have the opportunity to do something great.

Are we gonna make headlines for the wrong reasons? Are we gonna dishonor the legion Paris who considered us to be the best that Texas has to offer. Or will we show the world what patriots are made of that when things get tough, we pull ourselves by our bootstraps like true Texans and get after it, leave Texas graver than it was when we found it. Right, Well, we aren't successing as damn it. We are nationalist, one Nason under God, lover that the Constitution of the United States.

Let's do something great for Texas, animating for the country, goup, let's every single one of you. And I think that that that speech that I gave catapulted me to my party's nomination for governor of Texas boys state, UH and just seeing their united in the sense of this vision

for the United States, for the vision of America. Where we can have these disagreements, we can have different opinions and on some hills will die on defending some UH policy positions, whether to be you know, immigration or abortion. But because we don't agree on all these issues doesn't mean that we can't at least come to the table and have a discussion on maybe some areas within that

issue that we do agree upon. Our job at Boys State was to show that those who are in government that the younger generation could do it better than them, because we actually want to have these conversations with each other, and we want to have this debate and and work together not as as Democrat, Republican, right left, liberal, conservative, but as Americans who at the end of the day

want what's best for their country. And I think all of us would have been very, very shocked, um, if you told us in twenty team what would happen at the end of the of the Trump presidency. And I think that those kids that were there in my generation in general want to have a ah a country when that they want to inherit a country not on its

last legs, but with the renewed spirit of reconciliation. Um. It's it's just very disheartening to see at the same time strengthening our resolved to make sure that you know, our our democracy got rocked on January six, It stumbled it, it took a shot to the to the chin, but making sure that it's resolved is stronger than anything that can be thrown at it. And making sure that we play a part in ensuring that this country that we've inherited is able to be inherited by those who come

after us. Well, obviously I agree, and I think I think it's really important. The one thing that we have to remember that I learned. I learned there's a great difference between a poll of what do you support or oppose something and whether it's a voting issue for you, And what I think your generation can do is on a lot of these critical issues, make it a voting issue so that even if the culture seems to be

tugging against you, you can prevail. When the school shooting occurred at Columbine when I was president in Colorado, uh, it was the one of the whole series that occurred all the way from Oregon to my home state of Arkansas. Columbine seemed to galvanize the nation, and there was a clear, uh, a lot of support for closing the gun show loophole because these guns have been bought at a gun sale. And keep in mind, at the time the technology was

not as advanced as it is now. It's laughable. It would be nothing to close the gun show loophole and nothing to have instant background checks for online sales. There were no online gun sales when I took office. So anyway, the Republican governor of Colorado, a conservative, supported a referendum to close the gun sholder whole. The rest random past

seventy to thirty, but Bush still defeated Gore one. Now, nationally, if you look at what the Stoneman Douglas kids did, what they did was what happened at column By twenty years ago on steroids. They and their allies in Chicago and elsewhere made gun safety of voting issue in And that's what we have to do for all these issues.

They have to be a voting issue. And you've one of the things I hope you got out of your boys I experience and all the stuff that's happened since then as a result of it is it took me a long time to figure out how to make decisions with a strategy behind making an issue of voting issue. I would take a fifty to forty nine issue if a d percent of people on my side, we're going to vote on the vices of it. Right. It's UM,

it's walking a tight rope. I mean I knew that. Um. Again, it's a very tribal setting that you're in, and UM a lot of the kids kind of me being the dark horse in the race. All of the kids were taller than me, more handsome, They looked like the the ideal politician, and I was not UM. And I decided to knowing that as a you know, as as you know, somebody who identified as the Democrat running in a sea

of of Republican um was not advantageous to me. And I knew that I couldn't um go on stage and list all these different policy positions that I held with and expect to get that to get elected. UM. I knew that what I had to do was appeal to the again, to their better senses of of you know, I get you know, we're here to have fun, but actually, let's actually let's do something. Let's listen that's ever been done before. Let's let's actually, uh not treat each other

like the enemy. Because I think the the fault in the boy state system is that when you get there, you're assigned a party of color, blue, yellow, nationalist, federalist, and you're told that you hate this so outher party. You're told that they're the opposition, that you need to crush them, uh and and destroy them absolutely. In these elections, Uh, and I think when you when you um said that as what politics is, while it's not inaccurate to what

politics is in the real world. Uh, it's definitely not that way we should be going about things. And so running on a message at a guilty conservative voters to vote for me, especially on the gun issue. UM. I ran, you know, primarily as as a pro unity, pro America candidate boys State, and I made it to the runoffs. UM. In the fourteen a way primary, I got a third of the vote and the second place person got eight percent of the vote, and so we headed into a runoff.

And a wrench was thrown into my my strategy when uh, people found pictures of me leading a March for Our Lives demonstration in Houston, which I was a an executive organizer of And so now I had to explain my position to a group of conservative people. And when I got up on the stage, man, they started uh booing me and jeering me and heckling me. I am not anti Second Amendment. I am pro guns, but I'm also a common sense kind of person for the collective security

of the people. Someone should not be able to own a rocket launcher, feel exactly, and listen. I'm using it as a example. You know, I have this prepared speech. I have to get rid of it. There's being I can't use any of it now. I have to just address this. But listen. Not too long ago, tennf a high school shout up not far from where I live, and that it hurts man, you know those seeing uh, those people, these kids who shouldn't go through these things.

We can do something about it. We don't have to just because we don't agree on everything, the saying that we shouldn't come to the table and talk to each other. We should choose something. You know, we're going to protect our fellow teenagers and I just a teenagers. People going out to a nightclub, man or a movie theater. We should have end but just talking to them about the fact that our generation, uh, you know, because Calum, most of us were born in two thousand two and one, uh,

and all we ever known was school shooting drills. The siren after Marjorie Stoneman Douglas happened. Um a few days later. Uh in high school, we were all walking in the halls, and I was walking with a friend, and as we're all walking to our next class, the fire alarm goes off, which has never happened before. It's always predetermined, it's always scheduled. Um, and we all know that one's gonna happen. And so

everybody just stopped. Um, you know, hundreds of kids just stop what they were doing and just kind of looked at each other wondering what's going on? Is something happening, and the teachers not also knowing what's going on, rushing us out of the building into the parking lot and just to get out of there. That this isn't planned. You know, your your your your mind starts going to

that dark place of what could be happening. Uh, And and and telling that to this conservative boy and saying that no, you shouldn't be worried about going to school and getting shot, going to a movie theater and getting shot, going to a nightclub or a restaurant or a place of worship and fear these things and some of these things we're not going to agree on, but there are so many things we can agree on that could prevent such things from happening. And we need to get that done.

We need to show that, uh, the adults in the room, that we can do it better than them. That we could actually tackle these crises together because we've been through it and we've seen it, and we're tired of all this uh gridlock and partnership of things never getting done. And by the end of that speech to them, they gave me a standing ovation, and in that runoff election, I won the vote in that room of of my conservative boys against my candidate who was unabashedly pro Second Amendment.

Don't tread on me, come and take it. Well, I think that's the only strategy that works. What you said, you have to say, look, here's a problem, and your fellow Americans in this case, or your fellow Texans, they got this problem and we need your help. What I used to do and pushing all this gun stuff, I'd say, look, I'm not trying to interfere with your hunting, your sports, shooting, even your right to protect your family and your home.

But I do want you to help us keep guns out of the hands of people that even you think shouldn't have them. And we can't do that unless we can do comprehensive background checks of everybody. And I made a similar argument on the assault weapon span, but I was always saying, instead of calling them names, I would say, we need your help, we need to call them out, give him a chance to be bigger. That's what you

did when you want, I think. And then there was a student to UM and and not gonna remember this, but a few weeks after Parkland, Santa Fe High School and in the Houston area was was shut up and and a number of students died, and UM I met with a student who was there UM when the shooting occurred at Boys State. His name was Riley Uh, and we sat down after dinner. Riley was like many people

in the Santa Fe community. I think that the reason it didn't get as much attention is because that community was more conservative on guns and didn't place the fault of gun reform as the issue. They made it more mental health, the traditional way people conservatives talk about UM gun rights. And here I am somebody who's never experienced being into school shooting and he has, and I as somebody who have who has my views on it. I need to listen to him and hear what he has

to say, because he's somebody who lived through it. And it was a very proactive conversation and we disagreed on a few things, but Uh, you know, I explained the the loopholes, uh, that universal background checks would close, and you know, we wouldn't want somebody to have a gun who uh you can't trust, right, you wouldn't give any

just anybody a gun, would you? And he said no, and he's you know, we walked away, uh with a better understanding of each other and an agreement on an issue that he hadn't thought about before and and agreed with. And we were on opposite sides of the political spectrum.

And I think that's what's missing in today's politics, is that that personal conversation, that personal connection with people, rather than um, you know, calling each other out on social media, calling each other the enemy, trying to score political points or your favor with the media. By starting by starting something, UM. I think that that's you know, I think the film Boy State is about how can we bridge that divide in our country. Let's take a look at how some

of UM America's youth is trying to tackle it. And it is very hard. I mean, ultimately I don't win the governor's race, I I and I do lose, and but taking that that loss as UM a point of pride, knowing that I was able to unite these people was very, very UM. They gave me hope for the future. The thing I liked about you is, boy, you were hard over on what you believe, but you you've found a way to talk to people about it and to listen

to them. Now things have gotten so polarized in America that your suspect if you listen to somebody who disagrees with you, and you give them a forum, and you give them a hearing, and you look for a way where you might find common ground, Uh, it's it's definitely not easy. And as much as I preach about the needs to talk to one another, I've also I'll convictim to that sense of of tribalism and of of UM.

You know, there are some things that I think about tweeting, and I either don't tweet it out or deleted as soon as they tweeted, just knowing that this isn't the right way to go on about doing the things that UM I want to help accomplish. That that need for UM, for unity is is UM. So it's so important that UM. I think that this country will tear itself apart if we don't, we'll be back with more of my conversation with Steven Garza. After this, I got on out of

boy State, including a lot lifetime friends. But I think it's more important than ever that people like you who believe in inclusive governments, inclusive societies, inclusive communities, do stuff that gives you the practical skills and the rhetorical insight to prevail. And like you've proved an election, you don't have to win everyone. Heck, I've lost two elections for ran for president, but I think this is important. We've got to get young people to get off the sidelines

and into the arena. And and even myself had to. You know, when I first voted, I um, I turned eighteen the day before the midterm election in eighteen. I was born to Member five and the election was November six, and I registered to vote in September. Uh, you're able to register seventeen years, ten months. And um the day of I I don't see my registration online and that keep checking every day, and I assume they'll put it in on my birthday, because you know, on my e team.

Yet uh and the day of I don't see it. So I call the the elections office in Houston and it's run by a Republican and I asked them where, you know where my registration was, and they said, we don't have it. I don't We don't have you in the system. And I said, but I have my registration stuff right here, and they're like, okay, well you need to come down to the election office before we close. Also, you know, it's like thirty minutes away, and we close

in like forty five minutes. So I have, you know, wake up my mom, who's just taking a nap, and we rush over to the elections office and I hand over my my receipt that I registered to vote, and they signed me up to vote, and I go the next day after school, I go to vote at my precinct at local fire station and I give them all my information and they say that I'm out in the system and they're like, we're gonna have to vote provisional.

And so I'm annoyed and I fell about my provisional ballot and you know, vote and I favorally happy about voting, and I go home, and three weeks later I received a letter in the mail UH stating that my provid the Provisional Ballot Board, who reviews all the provisional ballots had denied my vote because I had voted in the wrong precinct. UM. The thing was is that I hadn't and I knew that I hadn't, and I knew that I made sure everything was right, but they told me

that I did. And so I had to contact the a c o U of Texas on my behalf to research and to reach out to the office, and and their investigation concluded that UM, I had met obstacles every single way, from the loss of my registration to not being in the system on election day, to being having my right to vote or being disenfranchise effectively by my vote not accounting because of an error made on their

part every step of the way. UM luckily, and that election that the Republican was ousted by a Democrat who assured me that UH, that they would make sure that this never happened again. And they and they kept their promise on that because Houston and Harris County introduced county wide polling places that you'll be able to vote anywhere in the county. Well, let's just follow up on that. The the one thing that you don't learn at Voice State is that there's nobody there trying to stop you

from voting. Everybody gets to vote, right, So it is what it is, and demographically it might not be like your community, and people may not be buying what you're selling. But at least if you if you can register or you can be deemed as registering, and it's on the level. There's the apparatus in America. The amount of time and energy that is being spent by organized groups to keep

people away from the polls is breath taking. And as I said, there's been a hundred bills introducing state legislatures just sense President Biden's victory to make it harder to vote. In Georgia, where the two Senate seats were one, there are bills now designed to eliminate vote by mail unless one you have an acceptable excuse and two you have a sworn AFFI David stating that excuse that you sign.

So I think that one of the things that look this is an old story that I can remember fighting with legislators and in my native state, who's actually believed that it should be harder for people to vote, because you get a better class of people voting if it were harder to vote. And we all know what that's about so, but that was forty years ago. We're gonna say, we don't need that, we need everybody to vote. We

need people on deck here. And I think that whether this current trend continues, that is, it depends first on the performance of the government in Washington administrates, secondly on the willingness of some Republicans to work with the Democrats, and third on whether we can protect the franchise. Because one of the things that we may have started doing at Boy State is let people serve on the Supreme

courts too, because these court decisions are unbelievable. And the U. S. Supreme Court ruled last year, while most of us, including me, were concerned with the presidential race, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that they're the only constitutional right which could be violated with no consequence in the courts is the right to have your vote counted on a more or

less equal basis. That is they ruth They said, gerrymandering absolutely can be unconstitutional, but the U. S. Supreme Court can't do a thing in the world about it because the Constitution lets state legislatures draw district lines. And that's just first of all, it's an absurd decision because that's and fifteenth Amendment when slavery was ended, guaranteeing the right to vote, and then equal protection of the laws meant that the federal government, the Spring Court could judge what

states do. So it doesn't make a look of sense the decision, but the U. S. Supreme Court did decide it. So you're gonna have to keep fighting for these things. And that's one that you can make your boy state speech on. You know, you all think everybody I would be able to vote or that you don't you just think, you know, in America we're all equal, or we are

we'll be right back. Since you've been in college, you think that your generation, because of all the events of the last five six years, is more willing to participate in politics and public service now or less. I think they're definitely more willing because they realize that the state that they have in this um that ultimately again we're gonna inherit this country and with that country comes all its problems. Um. You know, as a young person, I well,

I guess I am still a young person. As a younger person, you know, being fourteen, fifteen, six, Yeah, when you know, when I was you know, first got into you know, into politics and involved with the Democratic Party at fourteen of teen. Uh. People kind of were confused as to why I was doing it, and I said, well, um, I can't vote, uh, so I don't have a say

in what happens in Washington, do see. I think I'm pretty well versed in and and and what my beliefs are, um and and what I think is right and wrong. But I don't have a voice in Washington. I don't have a voice yet. The decisions that are they're making, well, I'm fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old are gonna affect me when I'm fifty years old. And so I thought

it was very important for me to be involved. And I see a little of a lot of young people realize that that uh, the reason that college is so expensive, the reason that it's gonna be hard for us to buy homes, the reason why wages are low, the reason why we're experiencing these uh climate events is because of

of government. And if we want us to be able to uh go to school at a reasonable level or at a reasonable price, or own a home or you know, make sure that we have a a living wage and that we're not working paycheck to paycheck, just struggling to get by. UH. And that you know, going to see a doctor won't bankrupt us. Um. And we need to be involved in politics. We need to be involved in government and be aware and uh, you know, just doing our civic duty to be aware of what's going on

in our country and participating in it. And you don't have to become a political staffer or run for Congress to do so. It's just by by voting and by taking your friends to vote, your family's vote. UM, by you know, reading the news, by staying engaged enough today on what's going on, UH can sometimes be enough for somebody who doesn't want to pursue politics professionally. Is just making sure that there uh know what's going on and that they have an active participation because you know, every

decision made is going to affect them. UM. And and for a long time, when I went to Washington to Boys Nation, President Kennedy met us in the Rose Garden and he thanked us because we had just voted in

our muck Senate session in Washington. We had just voted for civil rights bill that he couldn't get through the Senate in the real life Senate because they had a filibuster rule, and I never will forget he came down and it was a beautiful day in the Rose Garden in July of nine, and he shook hands with us. All of us were in like the first two rows.

He shook hands with us, And it made such a big impression on me that after I got elected president, I actually did a photo line so that every person there could get a picture, because it's like you, you know, you never dreamed five years ago that you'd be everything would happen to you as a result of this movie. I don't think right, definitely not speaking to you today. So I just decided I ought to do that, and I did it for seven or the eight years I

was president. One year my job required me to be out of town while Boys Nation the week they were there, of and I couldn't do a thing about it. But

otherwise always did it, and it leaves an impression. Um, I'm sure that that uh left a huge impression on on on your life and kind of guided you to that sense of like this is what you're you're destined to do and so and I have you know, I feel the same feeling right now, getting the opportunity to speak with you right now, UM, that sense of of you know, I didn't expect to have, you know, five years ago. I didn't expect to be where I am today. But I think I'm doing something right, and so I

plan on continuing, uh, the path that I'm on. Well, I think obviously I think you should and I think you should encourage others. And I don't think you can get discouraged when things don't work out. I mean, it's amazing, you know. And I've been working on some of these things since the nineteen sixties. And every time you think you got a battle, one something goes along and you fall back down the hill and you are to get up and dust yourself off and push the rock up

the hill again. That's the work of democracy. You have to keep doing it. Thank you well and and and I want to say, what the greatest honors in my life to be able to to spend some time with you, Mr President, And then thank you for offering me the opportunity to learn from you and and uh, you know, take your your your advice and your wisdom as I go on about this uh political life that I plan on pursuing. I thought you were great in the movie.

I thought it was a gutsy thing you did. I'm glad you stood your ground on the gun safety issue, and I'm glad to see the remarkable growth has continued in your life and your understanding since you made that film, and I wish you will and just keep active. Thank you, was ther President? Why am I telling you? This is a production of our Heart Radio, the Clinton Foundation and at Will Media. Our executive producers are Craig Manascian and

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