Further Reading
Brown, Scott. “The Man Who Would Be Keanu.”En-
tertainment Weekly, no. 736 (November 7, 2003):
24-28.
Grossman, L. “The Man Who Isn’t There.”Time,
February 21, 2005, 54-56.
Membery, York.Keanu Reeves. Philadelphia: Chelsea
House, 1998.
Amy Sisson
See also Film in the United States;Matrix, The;
Phoenix, River.
Reform Party
Identification “Radical center” third-party
movement
Date Established in 1995
The Reform Party’s rise and successes demonstrated the dis-
satisfaction felt by many Americans with two-party politics
as usual, especially on economic issues.
Although the Reform Party was not officially estab-
lished until 1995, many citizens’ dismay at the major
parties’ disregard of their concerns spurred the rise
of several independent political movements during
the 1990’s. Of these, the most spectacular were the
two attempts by Dallas software billionaire H. Ross
Perot to win the presidency. The Reform Party, es-
tablished as a vehicle for Perot’s 1996 campaign,
continued as a viable political entity through the rest
of the decade.
The Antecedents At the beginning of the decade, a
manifesto titled “Grassroots Petition” was published
by retired financial planner Jack Gargan. Gargan’s
outrage was fueled by the political system’s “dirty lit-
tle secrets” that the major news media seldom cov-
ered. A national debt of $3 trillion, self-enacted con-
gressional raises, depleting of the Social Security
system to cover the deficit, and lobbyists’ inordinate
influence due to their political contributions, were
among his complaints. Enough response greeted
Gargan’s petition to start an organization called
Throw the Hypocritical Rascals Out (THRO). In fall,
1990, Ross Perot, who agreed with Gargan’s com-
plaints about the system, contacted Gargan. Perot
had long meddled in high-level politics himself.
Among other efforts, he had founded United We
Stand during Richard M. Nixon’s administration to
aid the cause of American prisoners of war in North
Vietnam.
When Perot announced his independent run for
the presidency in February, 1992, he had a ready-
made structure in place, made up of his own Elec-
tronic Data Systems (EDS) employees, Gargan’s
THRO lists, and grassroots volunteers. Under the
aegis of United We Stand America, Perot ran an un-
conventional but remarkably successful campaign.
Despite a two-month shutdown during summer,
1992, he reentered the race on October 1, keeping
most of his supporters. His folksy plain speaking and
colorful charts made him the star of the candidates’
debates. In the 1992 election, he won 19 percent of
the vote, a new record for a third party.The Party Although Perot was initially coy about
making another presidential run, his dismay about
the enactment of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), the lack of genuine campaign
finance reform, and other disappointments meant
that this remained a live option. In September, 1995,
appearing on theLarr y King Liveshow, Perot an-
nounced the creation of a new party “for the inde-
pendent voters.” Its convention was held in Long
Beach, California, in August, 1996, with a second ses-
sion held a week later in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Unlike the relatively disciplined 1992 movement,
these events were preceded by infighting and a fair
amount of chaos in Reform Party ranks. Perot had a
challenger, former Colorado governor Richard
Lamm. To no one’s surprise, Perot’s selection as the
party’s nominee was announced in Valley Forge. His
1996 campaign largely emphasized the same issues
of economic nationalism and citizen access on
which he had run before. This time, however, much
of the electorate’s attention had returned to two-
party rivalries, and some anger had been deflected
by the Clinton administration’s budget-balancing
success and the nation’s rising prosperity. The Re-
form Party won approximately 8 percent of the pres-
idential vote in 1996.
This was enough, however, to qualify the party for
federal matching funds in 2000. During the inter-
vening years, as Perot removed himself from the
party’s active leadership, the gap between the EDS
and party activists and its local volunteers widened.
State organizations went their own way, adding to
the fragmentation. In Minnesota, former profes-The Nineties in America Reform Party 707