Steven Greenhut on Secession and the Presidential Election

Psychiatrists talk about the various stages of grief that people experience after suffering a devastating loss in their personal lives, ranging from denial to anger to bargaining (i.e., trying to strike a "deal" with a higher power) to depression to, finally, acceptance.

Political scientists ought to come up with a similar series of "grief stages" for those people who try to grapple with devastating political losses, writes Steven Greenhut. After last week's presidential election, conservatives are going through a stage that should be termed "fantasy" by advocating ideas—such as calling for their states to secede from the union—that will never come to fruition, pretending that there's a quick, fun solution to deep political problems that will only be solved over time and through hard work and vision.