For a clear sense of what the Republican Party has in store for the entire country, were it able to get its clutches on all the levers of power, North Carolina is becoming an increasingly illuminating place to look. With the election of the allegedly "moderate" Pat McCrory as governor last November, the Republican takeover of state government was complete. And in six short months, motivated by willful ignorance, spite and contempt, the party has cut a category-five hurricane swathe of destruction through the state, the damage from which could take years to undo. Tar Heel Republicans have, among other things, rejected Medicaid expansion, terminated long-term unemployment benefits despite an ongoing employment crisis in the state, passed tax proposals that virtually exclusively benefit wealthy North Carolinians at the expense of everyone else, passed severe new restrictions on access to abortion providers (the governor has expressed some concerns about the bill) and pushed through new voting restrictions in order, primarily, to suppress minority voting .

The substantive consequences of this agenda are dire. But what's especially striking about this relentless march of destructive policy-making is the unrelieved cowardice and dishonesty emanating from Raleigh in justifying this horror show.

We already know that perhaps the biggest of all Republican lies is that they care about budget deficits and fiscal prudence. While they falsely claimed that Medicaid expansion would be too costly for North Carolina, their favored tax proposals are projected to significantly worsen the state's fiscal position. Reductions in tax rates for the wealthiest North Carolinians, as well as possible elimination of the state estate tax (which affects a tiny sliver of the wealthiest families in the state but generates a decent amount of revenue), translates into additional deficits of a billion dollars by 2018. In turn, the state will be compelled to further cut its already miserly education budgets and other services for the less well off (this is, of course, Starve-the-Beast 101).

So, for Christ's sake, please stop telling us that you want to drive women back to the back alley because you care about their health. Stop telling us you care about fiscal prudence when three decades of evidence makes abundantly clear that in a choice between responsible budgets and giveaways to the rich, you will choose the latter almost every time. Stop telling us that you want to pass laws to restrict minority voting because you claim to want to address the essentially non-existent problem of voter fraud. And, please, stop telling us that you take to heart the teachings of the Lord when, lacking remotely credible reasons, you reject health programs that could save thousands of lives a year, all because you just don't think the poor deserve anything but their suffering. Cowardice and cruelty -- that combination has become the calling card of too much of the contemporary GOP. And North Carolina has quickly become Exhibit A for that sickening display.