The Czar would like to build a little bit on the Mandarin’s superb post on the so-called War on Women. Mandarin definitely captured the psychology of the Progressives; what has not been making news—and is just as essential—is what happened on the Conservative side.

Let us pretend Hillary Rosen made her bone-headed comments four years ago. Response? Rush Limbaugh would have devoted 30 minutes to it, and someone at the National Review Online would make a seven-paragraph post about its typical hypocrisy. Many of us would roll our eyes about it, and that would be it. Because it was typical hypocrisy.

When Hillary Rosen said what she knowingly said the other day, something else happened instead—something that has probably been happening quite a lot lately, but this time was completely documented.

Within minutes, Twitter went bananas as conservatives retweeted the comment back and forth, pundits attacked it, and wags snarked it with hashtags. Moments later, the Romney campaign went national with their responses, and these got sent back and forth as well. In under fifteen minutes, Hillary Rosen’s stupid expression of her conviction became more popular a Twitter topic than Justin Bieber. And that’s no joke, but a statistic; re-read that and think over the implication of it.

Here’s another implication: the Left has lost control over social media. Sure, in 2008, President Obama was all about Twitter, with YouTube fan-songs and his boo-hooing over giving up a Blackberry; because, you see, John McCain is a Republican, and Republicans hate technology and are unhip and old and smell bad. Two years later, the Obama administration starts up a website to report people saying bad things about him; conservatives immediately overwhelm it with false spoofs and it gets shut down. They try it again, with requests for people to report falsehoods about his programs, and once again it gets taken down with gag messages. Months ago, they start a Twitter hashtag with requests for things you love about ObamaCare, and so many embarrassing tweets followed that it, too, was discontinued. And weeks ago, they tried again with a tag about Secrets about Mitt Romney—predictably, the conservatives had so much fun with this one that the plug got pulled.

Now the Rosen gaffe happened, although “gaffe” is too kind a word. And once more, social media turned and bit the Obama administration solidly on the hand that fed it. And this implies yet a third thing: conservatives aren’t taking it anymore. Now they are going on immediate offense, causing no end of justified heartburn for the Obama administration. Each time someone in the Executive Branch says something misleading, outright false or just plain stupid, Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere light up. Millions of people, if the stats are to be believed, start putting out electronic handbills with the facts. The Czar hasn’t seen that organization since the 1770s.

Yet, we might suggest that Twitter and the blogs are more active than Facebook. Quite a few folks have noted that the Left seems to be pressing toward Facebook as their preferred social media. And no surprise: with Twitter, you can be attacked for what you say quite easily, instantly, and universally. The Left hates any conversation that goes out of their control. Likewise, a blog post requires thought, analysis, and care—which is more time than the Left likes to spend on a topic. Facebook, however, lets you say what you want, with only a Like button as the preferred cultural response. Once Facebook gets around to adding a Dislike button, the Left will need somewhere else to peddle their wares.

That may be Google+, although it most likely will be off social media entirely. Like vampires who cannot face their reflection in a mirror, the Left cannot withstand exposure, feedback, and corroboration; to their misfortune, social media is about all three of these things. And when Hillary Rosen reveals part of the Leftist game plan, it gets exposed, she gets piledriven and rotasubteriated by her own boss, and the Right rallies around Anne Romney. That’s an unassisted triple play, and puts us up to bat.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.