Margaret Thatcher (1925 – 2013), one of Britain’s most consequential Prime Ministers, passed away yesterday. She took a bankrupt country, a country in the death grip of socialist policies, and restored the basics of free market capitalism, while bravely defying thuggish unions that had turned the streets of Great Britain into garbage dumps.
When looking back at the genius of Margaret Thatcher, Seraphic Secret is struck by her ability to articulate coherent Conservative ideas in a way that anyone can understand.
More than anything, we, American Conservatives, need such articulate political figures.
Take a look at Thatcher eviscerating the socialist opposition in Parliament.
She’s having a grand time.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv5t6rC6yvg[/youtube]
Margaret Thatcher was also a great supporter of Israel. And she despised the casual Jew-hatred that is rife in polite and not-so-polite English society.
As Andrew Roberts reports in his eloquent memorial in the WSJ:
Similarly, her support for Israel was lifelong and unwavering. When asked about anti-Semitism she said: “I simply did not understand it,” and she denounced members of her own constituency association who excluded Jews from the local golf club. When asked in later life what her greatest single achievement was, she replied that it had come in the late 1930s, when she was 12 and raised money to help save a 17-year-old Austrian Jewish girl from the Nazis by bringing her to Britain.
Before I leave this thread I heard something on the O’Reilly Factor – with O’Reilly interviewing Bernie Goldberg – that I believe bears repeating about Thatcher.
O’Reilly made the comment that – like Carter and Reagan – unemployment before Thatcher was abysmal – forget the percentage, but it was high.
Within a few years of her leadership unemployment went considerably south – to 5.something percent?
And yet…
The left in Britain reviles her.
They actually had parties celebrating her death
Sound vaguely familiar?
Were they against low unemployment?
Goldberg made the comment – giving witness to the news media climate we inhabit – that Reagan – and Thatcher – changed the reality – and yet – by the news media are deemed “controversial”.
And yet…
Someone from the left tries to change reality – Obama trying to shake the foundations of this country – and the media says…nothing.
He, apparently, is not “controversial”.
At least in certain quarters.
Having learned from history, she made it instead of repeating it.
She, Reagan and John Paul were said to be the troika that defeated communism. She was one of the few leaders that changed reality – reality being a world from which one assumes would always be Most political leaders simply work in the current reality – and that reality stays during their entire tenure.
Thatcher changed Britain’s reality.
I was impressed with her on several levels – tirelessly campaigning – despite being a middle aged woman who didn’t do such things – changing the political reality of Britain and later in life, tired and frail, affected by a stroke, traveling halfway around the world to honor a good friend, Ronald Reagan, at his funeral.
Watching that speech you provided made me think she was adept at judo – political style – taking the worst her detractors could throw at her and throwing it hack at them with a sense of humor.
Most of my friends are knee-jerk lefties with little knowledge of history. My facebook was riddled with the expected statements. I replied to one:
England was falling to pieces in the late 1970s. The manufacturing base of what was once the industrial power of the world had collapsed. Garbage piled up in the streets for weeks. The govt seriously considered a 3 day working week because there wasn’t enough power being generated for a 5 day working week.Her economic policies caused a lot of pain for a lot of decent folks and wrecked traditions that were worth keeping. But if England had kept going down the path it was treading in the late 1970s, it’d be in a worse state than Spain today.
Later, in reply to a comment:
It wasn’t just unions, nor the ‘captains of industry’, it was a general malaise born of world-weariness and two devastating wars in 30 years. Mark, one case being Triumph Motorcycles. In 1962, the MD went to Japan, came back and said these people are gonna run us into the ground. Everyone laughed at him. 1968, England built more motorcycles than anyone else, despite the engines being a 1930s design. 1969, Honda came out with the CB750 and the English motorcycle industry collapsed in a heap.
I think it was 1968 but British Leyland consolidated all of these wonderful small British car manufacturers – jaguar, MG, triumph…and British Leyland was also the death-knell for the British car industry.
As soon as I heard that the Iron Lady had passed, I waited to see what you would have to say, because I knew you would. There is something to be said for sticking to one’s principles and being able to articulate them clearly and concretely, no matter one’s political affiliations. It sadly seems to be a dying art.
The Economist’s obituary on her had some fascinating insights. I will quote the closing paragraphs here, because I think they will be of general interest:
I will always be a great fan of Lady Thatcher. She shaped my conservative views even more than President Reagan! In late ’83, I was a 1st Lt, assigned to the 509 TFS in England as an A-10 fighter pilot. I remained there until mid ’87 when I was reassigned to Italy. During those years I watched the hey-day of Prime Minister Thatcher’s reign. The Falkland war had just ended a year prior and her struggles with the unions and socialist forces within and without of the UK had just begun. Long before the internet; I read the British papers for my news and watched their national news programs. It wasn’t long before I knew British politics of the day better than that of the US. Anyhow, it was an extremely interesting time to be an American cold warrior in Reagan’s Air Force on Thatcher’s turf. History did unfold, and my respect for the never-bending Iron Lady was tremendous by the time I left.
RIP Lady Thatcher, you will be missed!!!
I so admired Margaret Thatcher! Shame so many disliked her.
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/61086/margaret-thatcher-let-islam-take-over-uk-early-pal-of-arafatplo-pressured-israel-no-iron-lady-on-what-counts/
You don’t remember how she condemned Israel for going into Lebanon in 1982?
She was a friend but with a somewhat different point of view.
Mrs. Thatcher was also a hero of mine. Often referred to as controversial. A major mistake in political grammar. Leaders must follow their personal and political visions, not read polls or wish for love. An aspiration to succeed, and to ignore the bumper sticker-Luddite crowd, is required. She had that toughness. What a woman. And to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, the feminist movement disowned her as one of them. Hah!
Barry, I so agree with you. Will re-watch the movie “The Iron Lady” in her honor.