In response to the Republicans' power grab, more than 34 people were arrested in protests in Raleigh. After NAACP members refused to stop chanting, the legislature attempted to clear the room of protesters and insisted that the press leave, too. Which led to the arrest of a reporter from a liberal advocacy group for trying to cover the news.

One subject of the power grab: Republicans are trying to cement their power over county election boards statewide by divvying up control between parties.

These boards have been the vehicle of the party’s craven grand strategy: North Carolina is frequently referred to as the archetypal case of modern GOP gerrymandering. In August, a court found that the lines were drawn to segregate voters racially. Next year the state will be required to hold special elections in 28 districts that must be redrawn.

Some believed that homogenous districting would sink the GOP nationally this year. Clearly it didn't, but the 2020 census offers an opportunity for Democrats to reverse their fortunes in Congress—an opportunity that Obama and Holder believe in sufficiently to campaign for.

If the Carolina Coup is only an incident isolated to a legislature embittered by a close gubernatorial loss and emboldened by extreme gerrymandering, it's sufficiently horrible. But if it's echoed elsewhere, watch out.

As Jamelle Bouie put it, the last time the state "used the power of the state to protect itself from the voters of the stats," white tribalism became a de facto strategy throughout the South. The Week argues that Republicans nationwide seem to be aiming for a sort of partial tyranny, in which they can suppress voters they don't like, draw districts favorably, and overturn elections that don't go their way.