That's the goal of some Wisconsin state Republicans, who are hoping to pass legislation that
would allow Wisconsin to secede from the United States:
Earlier this month, the [Republican] 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.
I'll defer commentary. The post title, btw, comes from a traditional children's nursery rhyme "
The Farmer in the Dell."
The rhyme is first recorded in Germany in 1826, as "Es fuhr ein Bau'r
ins Holz," and was more clearly a courtship game with a farmer choosing a
wife, then in turn the selecting of a child, maid, and serving man, who
leaves the maid after kissing. This was probably taken to North America by German immigrants, where it next surfaced in New York in 1883 much in its modern form and using a melody similar to "A Hunting We Will Go."
Embedded image via Mr. Verb (where you can read about the history of the word "cheesehead.")
The resolution is probably politically unwise, but it is correct to claim that there is an inherent right of a people to secede. The United States itself was formed by a secessionist movement within the British Empire. The US reasoning at the time was similar to that of this resolution: the rejection of a government asserting powers that it did not have.
ReplyDeleteClever post title, Stan.
Probably not a serious threat of secession, but very interesting as a sign of a larger dissatisfaction with the federal government.
ReplyDeleteWell, not the federal government, just the non-GOP part of it.
ReplyDeleteCCL
I'm glad for your correction. The GOP is not unhappy with the federal government, they are unhappy that they are not in control of the federal government. Big difference.
DeleteYes! I don't know about the Wisconsin GOP, but this is an important difference.
DeleteAs long as there are no masked men taking over the town halls while speaking in a Russian accent I wouldn't start to worry.
ReplyDeleteIt wouldn't be a Russian accent, it'd be a southern drawl you'd hear with the "word" 'merica repeated a dozen times a minute.
DeleteWhat do southern drawls have to do with Wisconsin?
DeleteI sincerely hope the Wisconsin I knew and loved will be way too sensible to accede to the rantings of what so many in the formerly Grand Old Party have devolved into.
ReplyDelete