Now that a Democrat is about to take office in North Carolina, the Republican legislature has called a special session with the express purpose of stripping his power away so he cannot effectively govern.

According to the News and Observer, legislators convened a special session of the legislature to pass 27 bills aimed at stripping Governor-elect Roy Cooper of substantial governing powers.

Lawmakers want to hobble the incoming Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, before he takes office Jan. 1 by making his Cabinet appointments subject to approval by the state Senate and cutting his ability to appoint members to state election boards, the state Board of Education and the UNC Board of Trustees.

Democrats were set to have a 2-1 majority on all of the election boards this cycle, but with this legislation they'll be set at 2-2 in order to accomplish almost nothing.

There was a special session called earlier to deal with disaster relief. This latest round was unexpected, with the bills kept secret until the session convened.

This is an unprecedented power grab. Republicans claim they're just putting the power back where the state constitution meant it to be -- with the legislature. But if that was the case, they wouldn't be aiming at the election boards, Board of Education, and more.

According to WTVD, Democrats are calling the special session unconstitutional.

Here is a list of the bills they've filed:

This is how Republicans operate. They consider ALL Democrats to be illegitimate, particularly when they win elections and defeat Republican incumbents.

But even for Republicans, this is desperate and vicious.