For those citizens of North Carolina who live outside the radius served by the Independent Weekly, they recently published an excellent article about House Bill 129. The innocently titled "level the playing field" bill is a Civitas/AFP-backed agenda item to prevent local governments from establishing their own municipal broadband service and thereby compete with the big telecom companies. The same companies who currently enjoy big tax breaks to bring us overpriced broadband services that still ranks among the slowest in the developed world.

In the most recent tiding of our backslide to oligarchy, it has been revealed that some politicians are dealing with the ever-mounting cost of running political campaigns by augmenting their war chest with their own vast fortunes. As more and more self-financed candidates crop up in numerous elections, the fragile illusion that any citizen with the will to represent their peers and enough popular support can win office is in danger of being shattered. Without some measure of reaction to restore our democracy, there is little that can be done to protect us from the formation of a ruling class. If we truly live in a democracy, then the opportunity to run for office should be available to anyone.