Increasingly, Republican state legislatures are trying to restrict voting so that only Republican voters can take advantage of their constitutional rights.

Republican legislators in South Carolina have crafted a new voter identification law which disenfranchises minority voters.

The AP’s analysis of the state’s 2,135 precincts reveals there are 10 precincts where almost all of the people impacted by the new law are minority voters.

But they don't just want to stop some people from voting. They don't want those people to participate in the democratic process at all.

Freshman Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-WA) held a town hall meeting...but it was more of an intimate private party.

Herrera Beutler told the approximately 24 people who attended her community “coffee” Monday that her office contacted “between 5,000 and 10,000 people,” inviting them to the meeting.

“The whole purpose is to hear from you,” she said.

Herrera Beutler wanted to hear from those 24 people. But basically, only those 24 people. If just any old people were allowed to attend then things could get out of hand. Or be...you know...a democracy.

On Friday The Chronicle in Centralia received a phone call from Herrera Beutler staffer and Communications Director Casey Bowman informing the newspaper of the meeting. Bowman asked that a meeting announcement not be placed in the paper. However, he did invite the paper to cover the event.

The Chronicle refused his request and published an announcement in Saturday’s paper.

The reason for not publishing an advance notice of the meeting was the fear that people from outside the immediate area could come and “just yell” at the congresswoman “whatever’s on their minds,” Bowman said Friday.

Herrera Beutler isn't the only Republican who has no desire to speak to a crowd she can't control. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) cancelled a speech at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania because the university was going to have it open to the public.

While Cantor claims the university changed the original terms, the university claims that this was always going to be the case and Cantor's people knew this fact.

Penn spokesman Ron Ozio said in a statement that Wharton’s speaker series “is typically open to the general public, and that is how the event with Majority Leader Cantor was billed. We very much regret if there was any misunderstanding with the Majority Leader’s office on the staging of his presentation.”

The statement continued, “Wharton deeply regrets that the event … has been canceled. The University community was looking forward to hearing Majority Leader Cantor’s comments on important public issues, and we hope there will be another opportunity for him to speak on campus.”

I wonder why Cantor would change his mind?

About 500 to 1,000 protesters affiliated with Occupy Philadelphia planned to march from City Hall to Locust Walk in front of Huntsman to protest Cantor’s presence, according to Keystone Progress Executive Director Michael Morrill.

Right. That might do it. Especially since Cantor has referred to 99% protestors as "the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country". I can see why he might not want to have to actually confront the people he has been insulting.

While these "mobs" of 99% protestors are complaining that the government doesn't care about them, Republicans are proving it by blocking any real job creation coming from Washington. After blocking Obama's jobs bill, they are offering their own.

If you think it has a chance of alleviating unemployment then you haven't been paying attention.

Senate Republicans’ proposed jobs package would not reduce unemployment or spur the economy’s growth in the next year or two, according to a leading economic forecasting firm that has predicted that President Obama’s plan would achieve both goals.

And a central piece of the Republicans’ plan — a balanced-budget amendment to the constitution — “would quickly destroy millions of jobs while creating enormous economic and social upheaval” if implemented soon, said Macroeconomic Advisers, a St. Louis-based firm that has done work for the Federal Reserve. But an amendment and the required deep budget cuts are virtually impossible anytime soon; an amendment could take years to be ratified by enough states even if Congress were to approve the language this year.

Not only do they have no desire to create jobs, but they want to remove any support system for people currently unemployed.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) wants to severely limit people's access to food stamps.

Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain compared Social Security and the income tax code to slavery and "involuntary servitude".

We know that these conservatives want the country to fail, but how casually dismissive they are about anyone who isn't a multimillionaire is painfully apparent. Why exactly do any middle or lower class people vote for these guys?