A Republican Form of Government: Wisconsin As a Case Study

Every state should be sitting up and taking copious notes on the political situation unfolding in Wisconsin. What started as a fight between union and state is now far more than that and other states should take heed.

Clearly there is a debate on union power as a lopsided faction the Founders would have cringed at over the rights of individuals trampled by such. But that is a problem that pales in consideration of what is really at stake in Wisconsin as a case study for the rest of the states. Because 14 cowardly senators have gone AWOL on the state of Wisconsin citizens across the entire state are held hostage of the Republican form of government not only granted but also required of all the states in the U.S. Constitution. So important is this one universal government among all the states that the Constitution actually required the federal government protect all states’ right to it.

The 14 senators are not only acting in poor faith to their duty to represent their constituencies—as they are not taking a vote or legislating and their stand does not represent anyone, least of all their own constituents, they are preventing a representative form of government—a republican form of government—from being used in Wisconsin. Their acts actually are a form of tyranny, preventing a vote by other Senators wanting to represent their respective districts. They are violating their oath of office to support the U.S. Constitution, which expressly provides that republican government to Wisconsin.

This is even more complicated because the same clause that protects the state’s right to a Republican government specifies that the Executive branch defend that right. Another problem just availed itself: President Obama has come out in support of the unions, which by default means he has no intention of obliging Article IV, Section 4 stipulating he take action to support Wisconsin’s Republic.

But even if there is not a method of compelling and/or penalizing the AWOL senators in Senate rules, as stipulated in the Wisconsin Constitution, and even if the President of the United States is derelict in his office, Governor Walker still has recourse. He has the judicial system left and should, through the Attorney General’s office attempt to sue the individual senators for damages because they have infringed upon the constitutional right of every citizen in the state to a republican form of government.

This is a critical lesson for all other states: They should immediately enact legislation that penalizes any legislator with automatic expulsion and replacement who does not act upon his or her duty to provide a representative form of government for the people they represent, the state they are beholden to, and the United States Constitution they are sworn to support.