Gov. Pat McCrory and fellow Republicans who shoved into law House Bill 2 now appear caught off guard at a national backlash that potentially could roll back much of the economic progress that has been made since 2012 in North Carolina under their leadership.

Perhaps that is because McCrory and authors of the legislation, in their speed to override a Charlotte ordinance that would have allowed people to use the bathroom that matched their “gender identity,” didn’t pause long enough to fully understand the ramifications of the law. Or perhaps critics are exaggerating how far reaching the law is.

Either way, there is a rising tide that threatens to swamp North Carolina — unless lawmakers, when they return to Raleigh on April 25, clean up the mess they have made. Otherwise, it will be left to the court system to decide if the law is constitutional or not. The last time we did this dance, North Carolina lost, with Amendment One, which banned gay marriage in the state, being found to be unconstitutional.

A day no longer passes without the list growing of corporations that are threatening to punish the state economically for a bill that they believe is blatant discrimination. Additionally, sports organizations such as the NBA and NCAA have said they are looking hard at whether to use the state as a venue for future events that bring commerce to the state while showcasing it as well. There is even the question of whether North Carolina could lose billions of education dollars from the federal government.

So the potential cost is catastrophic.

We never understood the Republican rush. Although the Charlotte ordinance was scheduled to take effect on April 1, there are similar laws in dozens of states and hundreds of local governments, and there is little evidence that sexual predators are being enabled. The 21st century truth is, there are transgendered people among us, and they are disguised well. Imagine for a second a person with a male anatomy and a female appearance having to do their business in the men’s bathroom. That is where the real threat exists.

Critics say the bill goes far beyond keeping men out of the women’s bathroom, saying, as one example, it also prevents people who claim they were fired because of their race, religion or gender from suing in state court. And we always thought it was the Republicans who preferred the power stay local, and not in Raleigh.

We understand that ours is a socially conservative state, with Exhibit No. 1 being the overwhelming passage of Amendment One, and that explains the ease with which this legislation was adopted, with some support from Democrats, including those who represent Robeson County.

So there could be a political cost to righting this ship.

But when legislators return on April 25, the No. 1 item on their agenda has to be to revisit this legislation, and if they remain determined to keep transgendered people out of the other bathroom, narrow its scope so there are no unintended consequences. Absent that, a massive public-relations campaign must be launched to disabuse the critics of the notion that the legislation is hateful.

Much has been gained in the last four years on the economic front, and it makes no sense to kick any of it away on what is essentially a solution for a problem that never existed.