Three very disturbing patterns emerge from an analysis of the 2008 presidential campaign. The first is that none of the leading candidates for their party's nominations will be publicly funded. Second is that both Republican and Democratic candidates depend on large private contributions, not small donors. And third, the financial sector of the United States business community provides a disproportionate share of campaign funding.

There is an easy explanation for the first - Congress has underfunded the presidential system. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and Rudy Guiliani are raising and spending far more money than would be the case if they participated in the public funding system. The FEC website does indicate that if primary elections had been held in 2007 each candidate would have been limited to about $41 million. That figure will be adjusted upward in 2008, but the order of magnitude will be about the same

Jay Mandle writes a monthly column called "Money on My Mind." The November issue is below. To read past columns, please visit Democracy Matters.

Reform movements have historically understood the need to look to the federal government to solve social problems. That remains true today. Avoiding environmental catastrophe will require public sector initiatives; reversing the trend towards increased income inequality will necessitate new governmental income-support and labor market programs; the same is true if adequate medical care is to be provided to this country's low and middle income population. When markets fail to provide goods and services fairly, only government intervention can rectify the situation.

But a major obstacle impedes reform efforts today -- in large numbers the American people distrust the government. Polling data make clear that this distrust is deep. Starting in 1986, nine out of ten surveys undertaken by the American National Election Studies revealed that more than half the people polled agreed with the statement "public officials don't care what people think." With attitudes like these, it is a very hard sell to convince the electorate to support policies calling for an interventionist public sector. Most voters believe that the government caters to special interests and not to the needs and desires of the American people.

Jay Mandle writes a monthly column called "Money on My Mind." The October issue is below. To read past columns, please visit Democracy Matters.

Polling data make clear that there is a gaping disconnect between the American people and their trust in this country's political system. The United States retains the appearance of a democracy, but its substance has been steadily diminished. Private wealth in politics has alienated the electorate and has imposed a conservative agenda on the country.

That conclusion emerges from a review of surveys undertaken over more than a fifty year period by The American National Elections Studies (ANES) a well-respected research organization. The long term trend toward alienation is unmistakable.

In scores of campuses across the country this month students celebrate the U.S. Constitution. Through educating their peers on the importance of understanding it and how they can live as active citizens these student leaders are building a movement towards greater civic participation in their generation.  Common Cause and Democracy Matters are working together to give young people the tools and support they need to make an impact in how politics will affect their lives.  Organizing speaking events with faculty and guest speakers on the importance of what they're doing, a few students have been the headline acts on campuses I have been visiting this week.  At Bloomsburg University and St. Francis University, both in rural and small town PA hundreds of other students have stopped by to talk about politics and to register to vote.  To learn more or to get involved yourself email istorrar@commoncause.org.

Jay Mandle writes a monthly column called "Money on My Mind." The September issue is below. To read past columns, please visit Democracy Matters.

A bridge on an interstate highway collapses and people needlessly lose their lives. The government's effort to develop alternative energy sources is anemic at best and we continue to pollute the skies, worsening global climate change. The dams and levees protecting New Orleans collapse, leaving the city and its population devastated. These failures are not random events. They are directly attributable to inadequate domestic public investment and the politics that lies behind that shortfall.

Debacles such as those that occurred in the Twin Cities and in Louisiana are not inevitable. It is untrue, as conservatives would have it, that government projects inevitably fail. Forty years after the inter-state highway system was constructed during the Eisenhower Administration, that investment is still the foundation of our transportation system. What matters is whether such expenditures are engineered well and are adequately funded.