Via Megan McArdle's pointer to Kevin Drum, I found myself drawn to and mesmerized by this post, written by a self-described "advocate for victims of domestic abuse" who "draws some parallels between her work and the reaction of many Democrats to the election":

Hear the cacophony of voices, crying out, “Why did they beat me?”

And then ask anyone who has ever worked in a domestic violence shelter if they have heard this before.

They will tell you, every single day.

The answer is quite simple. They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence.

Let me get this right: I abused the people who voted for Kerry?

Still in a state of shock and awe, I returned to Megan McArdle, who's never looked more like a bastion of sanity:

It's not only grossly hysterical, logic-deprived, and thoroughly risible, it also belies the claim that the commenter has worked in a domestic violence shelter, where she would have seen families in desperate fear for their lives, not their tax code or farm subsidies.

But falsely accusing others -- complete strangers -- of abuse, well, I'm sorry, but that's the sort of thing Julius Streicher used to do. Abuse? The belief that one's group is a victim? Betrayal? ("Even if you do everything right, they’ll hit you anyway.") A sense of overwhelming crisis beyond the reach of any traditional solutions?

(But I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all, there are people who actually defend Julius Streicher.)

Und And it is time for victim empowerment!

....we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, “loose”, irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.

Yawohl!

UPDATE: As Glenn Reynolds reminds, Bush voters are tied to slavery too! Victims, we have nothing to lose but our chains!