Jeff Messer is the host of a daily radio talk show on Asheville’s WPEK (880-AM, The Revolution) that airs from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. This column features posts from his daily blog.

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The following was posted on April 20:

t’s not all about who pees in which bathroom. No. It is not. And, no it never was. The Charlotte Bathroom ordinance was a clever excuse for the NC GOP to pass the most massive government over-reach in recent memory. 

And they packaged and sold it — to both sides — as being about creepy men pretending to be women to go into the lady’s room. (Which they can do already, and it is already a crime.)

What HB2 is attempting to get away with is the very antithesis of what the GOP claim to be all about. They want less government intrusion, they support local government, and giving businesses the right to chose how they run their businesses. 

But like Sen. Thom Tillis’s early 2015 idiocy about taking down the over-reaching regulations that make us put up signs in restrooms telling staff to wash hands, this one does not hold up to even basic scrutiny. 

Of course, it should be noted that the GOP from North Carolina seems to spend an inordinate amount of time pondering on the goings on of public restrooms, which may be cause to worry in and of itself.

When Tillis went all deregulation-ist over hand-washing, and got backed into a corner when he had to declare that, for his plan to work, the businesses taking down those bathroom signs would have to hang signs warning customers that they did not require staff to wash hands. So, a regulation sign to replace a regulation sign.

Sigh.

With HB2, the fallout is more severe. Never mind that Georgia was smarter than North Carolina by avoiding the economic calamity by not signing similar legislation into law. Never mind that HB2 is clearly an illegal law that will be fully defeated in Federal court. Never mind that Gov. Pat McCrory is losing points rapidly toward his reelection.

Who seriously thought that this was a winning issue in an election year?

HB2, upon deeper examination (and don’t kid yourself, it doesn’t have to go that deep) we discover that it basically strips local cities and governments of the ability to govern themselves, accordingly. It also prevents ANYONE from being able to sue within state courts if they themselves are discriminated against. On any level.

For example: An atheist business-owner can now post signs denying service to Christians, and it is perfectly legal. And you can’t sue in North Carolina courts over it.

How about that? Persecution time?

If you think the LGBT community are raising a ruckus over HB2, just wait until a right-wing Christian gets turned out over it. Raising hell doesn’t even begin to tell you what kind of stink they would make. And you know I’m right about that.

So who does HB2 benefit? Clearly, no one. Not even the North Carolina GOP who are getting hammered over it from multiple sides. So, if they thought this was the one piece of legislation that would make their re-election.

As we sit on the precipice of potential economic disaster, brought on by the growing list of major companies that are boycotting North Carolina over this, one has to wonder what the whole thing was actually all about, if it benefits not even the legislators who pushed it so hastily through. Why the rush? And now, why the rush to try and plug holes in the sinking ship that they themselves shot the holes into?

North Carolina is a real head-scratcher on a number of levels these days. And, sadly, too many people are buying into the superficial aspects of the whole thing. Stop just window-shopping, North Carolina!