The maps released by House and Senate Republicans for the purpose of satisfying court demands for fair representation are, to put it bluntly, a joke. The Voting Rights Act requires three characteristics for passable maps, one of which is that they must reflect social and political “communities of interest.” Placing liberal Chapel Hill in the same district as, depending upon which map is used, the mountains or mega-bigot Dan Bishop’s exurban Charlotte base is a juvenile slap at powder-blue-clad “libruls” that just advertises the GOP’s desire for Supreme Court justices to invalidate this map.

In our political system, drawing district lines is central to the operation of fair elections. Mapmakers, Republican or Democrat, are expected by federal statute and political norms to draw districts that satisfy the need for continguous, diverse, and coherent fields for elections that are supposed to be free and fair. It is not supposed to be Fun Town for politicians who have become far too comfortable in their position of political dominance. What North Carolina Republicans have done here is disrespect the very structures of electoral administration that lie at the core of our democracy. Their maps are not serious or even amusing; they are flippant.

NCGOP operatives have come to exhibit a wide-ranging disrespect for our most sacred institutions. They crafted a Monster Voting Law that targeted African Americans “with almost surgical precision.” They stripped incoming Governor Roy Cooper of much of his statutory authority and sardonically asked what he still had any powers left for the legislature to purloin. Republicans sent manifestly unserious bills regarding “campus free speech” and “born-alive abortions” to the Cooper’s desk in an effort to embarrass the governor and supply GOP consultants with rich fodder for campaign attacks. Deliciously, their gubernatorial nominee, Dan Forest, was so incompetent that he didn’t even get to weaponize the trolling bills.

Few Republicans have abused our institutions with greater persistence and flagrancy than state House Speaker Tim Moore. Moore, known in his days as House Rules Chairman for cutting off debate, held a surprise veto override session in which he alerted fellow Republicans to the scheduled vote but kept Democrats unaware, so as to manufacture a majority vote that did not reflect the views of the House as a whole. Moore has gotten rich off of his public “service,” acquiring snazzy cars and a big boat. But he’s just the most sordid and shameless of a rogue’s gallery of anti-democracy reactionaries. Moore may be little more than Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger’s sidekick when it comes to legislation, but in terms of corruption, he is a trendsetter.

Republicans, in other words, lack any reverence for our institutions and our history. North Carolina’s democracy was forged in blood: beatings and marches and a deadly coup. Serious public servants would know this history, and respect the sacrifices made by so many to build an experiment in Southern self-government. Instead, they continue to treat our democracy like their own personal Dave & Buster’s venue for juvenile personal entertainment and developmental regression. It’s shameful and a taint on the institutions that North Carolina’s leaders treasured not so long ago.

Edit: The General Assembly this morning released a much fairer map than the designs the circulated yesterday. They deserve credit for this, but the majority’s longstanding disrespect for our democratic traditions and aspirations will remain a blot on our public life until the majority shows it has systematically rethought its approach.