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.

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.