"I find their tone too hostile for my liking," says Henry Ellenbogen '94, who has served as campaign manager and later chief of staff to U.S. Rep Peter Deutsch (D-Fla.). "They insinuate that our age group should move in isolation."

Ellenbogen, like many students, says he is uncomfortable with generational politics. "Americans in general have become cynical about leaders, which is destorying the fabric," he says. "We need to work with the system. People in their twenties have a lot to offer...Congressmen recognize that."

Ellenbogen says those who criticize the political system for being unreceptive to the ideas of twentysomethings are wrote. "It's all merit," he says. "It's a question of being able to work hard to make up for experience."

Marc McKay '94, who is currently running for a seat in the Iowa state House, says he agrees with Ellenborgen's point. "People in the political scene are receptive to hard work... There's no need to transcend the system," he said from Iowa in a recent phone interview.

McKay, who once worked for Lead or Leave, doubts that his former organization and groups like it will transform politics because they lack both grassroots support and a coherent plan.

"They try to stay non-partisan but don't have a plan," says McKay, a Winthrop House resident. "They're more generationally sensitive than politically sensitive."

But Thau dismisses such criticism as ill-informed. "We're totally about a grassroots effort," he says.

And Thau argues that the membership of groups like Third Millenium is not limited to those who oppose the political system.

"We encourage young people to get involved in any way they can," he says. "Third Millenium is only the means to an end [of political activism]."

In the minds of many students, however, Lead or Leave and Third Millenium are little different than other political groups.

"They're supplements to other groups, like Young Republicans," says Trey Grayson '94, the former chair of the Institute of Politics' student advisory committee.

Jomo A. Thorne '97, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe College Democrats, says he sees Lead or Leave as a vague attempt to bring back the activism of the 1960s.

"They won't match the '60s, which is what these people are trying to do in a '90s kind of way," Thorne says. "The only way people are motivated to act is if they are affected directly. You don't see the deficit affecting you directly, whereas being drafted for war is direct."

But Thorne, unlike many other students, believes generational change is possible if twentysomethings can somehow overcome their apathy.

"There's so much we could be fired up about," Thorne says. "But people don't care....They don't understand the implications of issues today and how they will affect us in the future."