Wisconsin Republicans Pass Resolution on Secession from U.S.

One of Wisconsin’s eight regional Republican Party conferences passed a resolution last month clearing the way for Wisconsin to secede from the United States, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel revealed this week.

Wisconsin’s current flag displays a year
near and dear to this blog.

At a meeting of the 6th Congressional District’s Republican caucus, members passed a resolution stating: “Be it further resolved that we strongly insist our state representatives work to uphold Wisconsin’s 10th Amendment rights, and our right to secede, passing legislation affirming this to the U.S. Federal Government.”

Fond du Lac County delegates always liven up
6th Congressional District events.

Daniel J. Feyen, Republican chairman for the district (pictured at the top of this article), later sent a memo to other G.O.P. lawmakers noting, “I did not agree with many of the resolutions passed as they do not deal with the true opponent that we face in our upcoming election cycle.”  Feyen says some of the resolutions were passed after most members had gone home.  The Republican Party executive director for Wisconsin, Joe Fadness, reminded the public that such resolutions are completely nonbinding, and one long-serving Republican lawmaker in Wisconsin told media, anonymously, “It makes us sound like Texas.”

A much more likely flag for an independent Wisconsin

No one in Wisconsin’s Republican Party, however, took the step of distancing the party from the loopy assertions of “Tenthers,” a widespread movement of Tea Party–style conservatives who believe—in defiance of centuries of jurisprudence on the subject—that the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution gives U.S. states almost unlimited powers.

Wisconsin, as a swing state, where power is more or less equally divided between Republicans and Democrats, is a poor candidate for a secession movement.  This is in contrast to the separatist sentiment in states such as liberal Vermont or conservative Texas and Alaska—places which would be governed quite differently if they were independent nations.

The organic-constitutionalist “Republic for the united States of America” shadow government
maintains a “Wisconsin Republic” web page (from which the above
is a screenshot—complete with totally invented George Washington quote!),
but that is the closest there is to an actual Wisconsin separatist movement.

[For those who are wondering, yes, this blog is tied in with a forthcoming book, a sort of encyclopedic atlas to be published by Auslander and Fox under the title Let’s Split! A Complete Guide to Separatist Movements, Independence Struggles, Breakaway Republics, Rebel Provinces, Pseudostates, Puppet States, Tribal Fiefdoms, Micronations, and Do-It-Yourself Countries, from Chiapas to Chechnya and Tibet to Texas.  Look for it some time in mid 2014.  I will be keeping readers posted of further publication news.]