Wisconsin Republicans To Vote On The Right To Secede From The Union

At its convention next month, the Wisconsin Republican Party will vote on a resolution supporting the right of states to secede from the United States:

To secede or not to secede.

That will be the question for Wisconsin Republicans at next month’s convention.

Earlier this month, the party’s Resolutions Committee voted in favor of a proposal that says the state party “supports legislation that upholds Wisconsin’s right, under extreme circumstances, to secede.”

A version of the so-called “state sovereignty” resolution was first OK’d last month by one of the state GOP’s eight regional caucuses as an assertion of the state’s 10th Amendment rights. The measure also calls for ending all mandates that go “beyond the scope of the constitutionally delegated powers of the federal government.”

Top Republican officials hoped to kill the fringe proposal during a meeting of the resolutions panel at the Hyatt Hotel in Milwaukee on April 5. Instead, the committee made a few edits to the resolution and adopted it on a split vote.

Now, the matter will go for final approval to the delegates attending the state Republican Party’s convention in Milwaukee on May 2-4.

Gov. Scott Walker, the leader of the state party, distanced himself from the resolution last week.

“I don’t think that one aligns with where most Republican officials are in the state of Wisconsin — certainly not with me,” Walker said at a press event on Friday.

Leaving aside the historical irony of a state Republican Party potentially endorsing the idea of secession or the fact this is happening north of the Mason-Dixon line, things like this are just another example of how extremist elements within a political organization can end up doing things that embarrass the organization. I anticipate that the state party will ensure that the resolution fails at the convention next month, but the fact that they even will be voting on it means that the media is going to be paying unwanted attention to stupid things, that can’t help the image of the party as a whole. At some point, one thinks, Republicans will start to learn this lesson.

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Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. CB says:

    I wonder what it’s like to live in a nation governed by adults.

  2. anjin-san says:

    @ Doug

    extremist elements within a political organization

    Perhaps you could tell us who the moderates in the GOP are…

  3. C. Clavin says:

    Sure…in the 80’s we put import tariffs on foreign motorcycles…which saved Harley Davidson.
    Now they are going to be an imported Motorcycle. Let’s tariff the f&ck out of them.

  4. Tillman says:

    Look, we can’t let Wisconsin get out of the Union. The cheese, man. Their cheese is the only thing keeping us from becoming lactose intolerant like the East Asians.

  5. DrDaveT says:

    @Tillman:

    The cheese, man.

    “The cheese” comes from France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, California, and (increasingly) a few awesome local artisans here in the mid-Atlantic. I wouldn’t miss Wisconsin’s cheese any more than I’d miss their beer.

  6. Dave D says:

    The real shame is that the GOP was born in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, because there was not party that represented the feelings of Northern Abolitionist opposition to the expansion of slavery. Indeed the irony is thick in this instance. What a laughing stock this party has made my former home of 22 years. When Walker doesn’t even support your crazy idea, you know that this is the fringe.

  7. legion says:

    Earlier this month, the party’s Resolutions Committee voted in favor of a proposal that says the state party “supports legislation that upholds Wisconsin’s right, under extreme circumstances, to secede.”

    In the words of Cedric the Entertainer, “I wish a motherf*cker would.”

  8. gVOR08 says:

    @anjin-san: Yeah, I love this attitude that all this craziness is something that just fell out of the sky on the Republicans, not something they’ve been stoking for decades.

  9. gVOR08 says:

    Oops, forgot to add – where do Republicans find these people, and why?

  10. anjin-san says:

    @ Tillman

    Look, we can’t let Wisconsin get out of the Union. The cheese, man.

    No worries, California has you covered:

    http://www.cowgirlcreamery.com

    I think I am going to have to make a run out there this weekend and pick up some Red Hawk.

  11. al-Ameda says:

    Of course the people of Wisconsin (living outside the city of Madison) have the right to secede, the question is whether or not we want to let them go.

    Joe McCarthy’s Wisconsin? Sure, why not?
    Russ Feingold’s Wisconsin? Welcome to stay.

  12. wr says:

    And of course, these are the real patriots.

    Just like the Randian superhero in Nevada who claims that he gets to graze his cattle for free on government-owned lands — lands we all own — because he doesn’t approve of the government. And I’m sure in his free time she screams about all the moochers…