The 1996 presidential election saw a broadness of minor party success unprecedented in the history of American politics. Three minor parties -- the Reform Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Greens -- each saw its presidential candidate receive more than 400,000 votes, while two other minor party candidates each received more than 100,000 votes.

At the same time, however, the two-party vote once again failed to top the peak it reached in 1984. Five million fewer voters pulled their levers for Dole or Clinton in 1996 than for Reagan or Mondale 12 years earlier (86.6 million major party voters in 1996 versus 91.7 million in 1984).

In Party Animal, Michele Mitchell puts forward a plausible explanation for this fracturing of the American political landscape: that young voters ("18-35s", as Mitchell terms us) are ready and willing to move beyond the traditional Democrat-Republican dichotomy to seek out and vote for competent and compatible candidates of any party.

Mitchell traces this willingness to several sources: the increasingly trivial nature of mainstream American political discourse, the failure (perhaps deliberate, she suggests) of political consultants to effectively appeal to the youth vote, the lack of concern the two major parties show for issues that passionately engage younger voters, and an unbridged gulf between the values of these younger voters and the values of major party leaders.

Perhaps the most interesting story in Party Animal is Mitchell's version of how the Clinton health care proposal of 1994 was killed in Congress. Mitchell believes that young Capitol Hill aides (including herself) of both political parties sunk the bill, after they decided that it would be one more entitlement for the elderly at the expense of the young. I find her belief difficult to take seriously, but her story made for rousing reading.

Mitchell also tells the stories of a handful of activists in their 20s who are making substantive and incremental improvements in their communities, eschewing pie-in-the-sky visions of global reform in favor of tangible and meaningful results. Though I'm glad to know that people my age are boldly taking the lead on ambitious yet practical projects such as youth counseling and tenants' rights, I do question Mitchell's implication that most or even many of our peers are devoting themselves to community service. Unfortunately, it's not. Mitchell (rightly) attacks the common portrayal of our age cohort (Mitchell and I were both born in 1970) as apathetic and lazy, but she is equally inaccurate to portray us as unheralded moral paragons.

In addition, Mitchell's frequent (and frequently nasty) attacks on older people as a group and in particular are mean-spirited, unfair, and distasteful. "With her pushed-out front teeth and pinched nose, Westy Byrd looked just like her name"...is this really necessary?

Party Animal loses touch with reality once it moves from describing the political inclinations and outlook of "18-35s" to describing our actions and lives. This is a book best read not to learn about the present reality, but to hear a passionate and hopeful call to arms showing what we can do if we know our strengths and use them wisely.

Review posted: 20 September 1998

Revised: 31 July 1999