Appearing on "Meet the Press", documentary filmmaker Ken Burns attributed conservative unhappiness with the election to racism.....

Some disappointed Republicans are talking secession in Texas and elsewhere. This is proof of racism? Is this the standard of evidence Burns employs for his films?

Secession talk is the overheated emotional venting of the disappointed. It is not the exclusive province of Republicans. In 2004, Jonathan Gurwitz of the Houston Chronicle reminds us, Democratic talking head Lawrence O'Donnell suggested that George W. Bush's reelection would provoke "a serious discussion of secession over the next 20 years." When a fellow panelist on the TV show in question asked, "Are you calling for civil war?" O'Donnell replied, "You can secede without firing a shot."