Remembering a Titan

She was the most threatening kind of woman– intimidating to insecure men and discombobulating to women who maintain the bigoted stereotype that strong, moral females could only come from the political left. She didn’t mean to be. She was just being herself, her articulate, immovable, delightfully intellectual self– Margaret Thatcher.

She was nicknamed Zheleznaya Dama Ugrozhayet, the Iron Lady, by Soviet propagandists who didn’t care for her straight-shooting style. As a child I admired her ability to stand shoulder to shoulder with the male leaders of her time as an equal, yet still fully be a woman. She did not hide her femininity or temper it for the sake of the boys’ club she was operating in. She was a mother and a wife and yet one of the most important politicians of the 20th century.

Margaret Thatcher has passed away at the age of 87 following a stroke and many news outlets are being less than kind about her legacy. Most headlines I’ve seen are remembering her as a divisive figure who “some love and some hate.” While that is true, and I understand why certain countries (nod to my Scots) might feel that way, I don’t think that such persnickety rhetoric would be applied to a liberal person of this stature upon their death. It also disgusts me that grotesque parties broke out in Great Britain to celebrate her passing. It shows just how much the left has convinced people that it’s okay to demonstrate hatred as long as you’re hating and spitting on the right.

Whether you agreed with her politics or not, she was a political titan. She remains Britain’s only female prime minister (as well as one of the longest serving). She worked closely with the United States and I was particularly fond of her professional relationship with Ronald Reagan– she was a critical ally in the Cold War. She was a diplomat willing to work with Russia and a strategist who recognized opportunities for diplomacy while at the same time knowing when to stand her ground. Thatcher was also the first British prime minister to visit Israel.

I miss politicians like Thatcher. That’s not an endorsement of everything she did, it’s just that she was unashamed to say it like it is and call out injustice and evil as she saw it. While it’s obvious from comments on news sites that opinions of her vary by person, geographic area, and so on, she seems to be most hated by those who embrace socialism and most loved by those who are fans of capitalism. This is quite ironic, because the very fact that her socialist detractors have the freedom to voice their disdain is due in part to her stand for the values that they’ve worked to erode.

Ultimately, I find it intensely unsettling that since the 1980s, a time when it seemed that most civilized people truly enjoyed freedom and prosperity– or at least the idea of it– great segments of the Western population has decided that the government should be all things to all people. Never mind that economically this kind of illogical thinking is driving our economy into a bottomless pit and the consequences of this move towards socialism are often conveniently ignored. This is a time when we need another fiscal Thatcher to crash the tax and spend party and reorient our priorities and spending before we completely tear ourselves apart.

Rest in peace, PM Thatcher. May you be richly blessed as you enter eternity for your efforts to do the right thing even when it was the hardest thing to do.

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Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t. -Margaret Thatcher

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