Collective Punishment, Ohio Republican Style

Ohio was the state that put President Obama over the top Tuesday night as record numbers of minority voters and women turned out in the President's favor.  The response from Ohio Republicans?  It's time to immediately punish the people of the state for allowing this to happen.  Time to punish working class voters:

For the chairman and chief executive of Murray Energy, an Ohio-based coal company, the reelection of President Obama was no cause for celebration. It was a time for prayer – and layoffs.

Robert E. Murray read a prayer to a group of company staff members on the day after the election, lamenting the direction of the country and asking: “Lord, please forgive me and anyone with me in Murray Energy Corp. for the decisions that we are now forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build.”

On Wednesday, Murray also laid off 54 people at American Coal, one of his subsidiary companies, and 102 at Utah American Energy, blaming a “war on coal” by the administration of President Barack Obama.”

...and time to punish women:

Last year, anti-choice advocates in Ohio pushed extreme legislation to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected — which often occurs as early as six weeks, before many women may even know they’re pregnant. So-called “heartbeat” bills like HB 125 are so radical that they often divide the anti-abortion community, and this particular legislation has been stalled in the Ohio Senate since June 2011.

But now, thanks to significant pressure from the anti-choice groups who were the biggest proponents of the heartbeat bill last year, HB 125 may be up again for consideration in Ohio’s Senate as early as next week. 

The bill would functionally eliminate abortion in the state and makes no exception for the health of the mother, rape, or incest.  And this too:

The heartbeat bill isn’t the only anti-choice measure up for consideration in Ohio next week. A Planned Parenthood affiliate in Ohio notes that the Ohio House Health Committee has also scheduled a vote next week on a bill that would defund Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. 

And so the "payback" begins.   That's how Republicans in Ohio seek "compromise".  You get punished, and they tell you it's for your own good.  They want you to hate Obama, it's all his fault we have to do this to you, they say.

No contrition, no remorse, no soul-searching.  Not for a second.  You are the enemy to them, and you will now pay as a result.