Understand that Jennifer Roberts and crew are blazing a trail for how county governments are supposed to react to state government cuts in mega-state funding — with massive local tax hikes. This is the official Democratic playbook for 2011 and — especially — 2012.

It just happens to work even better in Mecklenburg because Roberts gets to rub the noses of Thom Tillis and Bob Rucho in their own fiscal policies and tax the mess out their constiuents to fund public sector (Democrat) jobs. Where things get especially tricky is that local Republicans cannot even effectively agitate against the Roberts hegemony because Pat McCrory was her partner — and before that Parks Helms houseboy — in defending the status quo and delivering everything the Uptown crowd wanted to them on a silver platter; and Republicans desperately want to elect Pat governor next year.

So, in effect, Republican leaders view Mecklenburg County as a low-rent Sudetenland — not really worth going to war to save. And also riven by collaborators and appeasers.