Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts (right)

Even for North Carolina Republicans, whose contempt for democracy is boundless, this is utterly astounding:

[Charlotte Mayor Jennifer] Roberts said that during the wrangling over LGBT policy, multiple state legislators have made off-handed mention to her of the state's authority to re-draw local government districts or dissolve city councils entirely. "They haven't said, 'We will,' or 'We'd think about it'—they've just said, 'We could,' " Roberts said.

WHAT in the ever-loving WHAT? Just dissolve the duly elected government of a city of 800,000 people? That literally sounds like the GOP is cribbing lines straight from the villains in Star Wars—as though they think Darth Vader is their role model.

Hell, they probably do, because this is no fantasy. North Carolina Republicans have already gerrymandered local election districts in counties and cities across the state, in order to wrest control of city councils, school boards and county commissions from their inhabitants—and from the Democrats elected by those voters. Eliminating local authority altogether is just the next logical step for a gang that believes in power and nothing else.

Republicans currently hold veto-proof majorities in both North Carolina’s state House and Senate, meaning that as long as they stick together—and they almost always do—they can implement whatever outrageous laws they like by running roughshod over Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who just took office this month. The only way to stop them is simply by electing more Democrats to the legislature.

If we’re lucky, we might get the chance to do so in special elections later this year. (Surprise! The GOP’s legislative maps have been ruled unconstitutional.) The Supreme Court has put those on hold for now, but no matter what, we’ll have our shot in 2018 at the latest—though Republicans would probably like to cancel those elections, too.