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Wisconsin GOP to vote on adding threat of secession to platform

Wisconsin Republicans will vote on whether to include the threat of secession into their party platform.
The Wisconsin State Capitol, as seen from a nearby building in Madison, Wis., on June 16, 2011.
The Wisconsin State Capitol, as seen from a nearby building in Madison, Wis., on June 16, 2011.

Wisconsin Republicans will vote on whether to include the threat of secession into their party platform next month.

Eight regional GOP caucuses have already approved the proposal; it will be voted on again by the party at the state GOP's annual convention, according to The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.

The proposal writes that the Republican Party "supports legislation that upholds Wisconsin's right, under extreme circumstances, to secede” and maintains that the 10th Amendment grants the state these powers.

(The 10th Amendment—an amendment beloved by secessionists and states rights’ activists alike—writes, “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”)

Wisconsin’s GOP is far from the first conservatives to advocate secession. Four in 10 Republicans actually support secession efforts, according to a Huffington Post/YouGov poll in 2012 following a slew of secession petitions.

Last year, the Texas Railroad Commissioner and attorney general candidate advocated preparing the state to become an independent nation while Colorado Republicans in the eastern part of the state advocated seceding from their liberal state to form a more conservative state with their rural interests in mind.