Another Great One Leaves the Scene: Margaret Thatcher, RIP

It is hard to write about Margaret Thatcher. Her accomplishments were so many and so truly stunning that one can only stand in awe. All of us who appreciate the values of Western civilization and the need for a strong US-UK alliance are forever in her debt. She, Pope John Paul II, and President Reagan brought freedom to millions oppressed behind the Iron Curtain. In addition, she and Reagan fought a valiant effort to hold back the tide of socialism and dependency in the West. Her skepticism about the monster known as the EU has proven accurate. She knew what she was about.

I wonder how many of our "highly educated" university students have more than a vague knowledge of Thatcher. I am sure they know more about nonentity feminists such as Germaine Greer, Mina Loy, and a host of dopey Hollywood celebs. Margaret Thatcher, an ardent follower of the Friedrich Hayek/ Milton Friedman message of economic freedom, burst onto the international scene at one of the lowest points for the West since the days of Munich. The late 1970s were very distressing years for those of us who believed in freedom, were horrified by the unopposed spread of Soviet influence, and could not understand why our politicians failed to address how the economic situation had become so dire. The Britain that she inherited was little more than an offshore slum of Europe. Its international prestige was in the dumpster, and at home some of the most rabid labor unions imaginable were driving what was left of the economy into that same container.

To an outsider, it appeared that that single most admirable thing about Britain, its spirit, was a broken thing of the past. Not to Maggie. She gave her nation a shot of adrenaline; she refused to accept the "inevitability" of British and Western decline. At home she revitalized the economy and broke the mad unions' grip on power. Abroad she held the fort until the cavalry could arrive in the shape of Ronald Reagan who finally rid us of the calamitous Carter, a man who encapsulated everything wrong about that era. Was she perfect? No. I appreciate the pressure she was under but still think her dead wrong in her opposition to the US liberation of Grenada: for that one and only time Reagan and she had a serious miscommunication, one which in the hands of lesser mortals could have put an end to the unique relationship between the two leaders. The liberation of Grenada was the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire. She and Reagan mishandled it, much as Eisenhower and Eden had mishandled the Suez Crisis. They, however, turned it around; she and Reagan got back on the same game plan, and the US and the UK formed a helluva team that put an end to the Soviet nightmare.

Her intelligence, patriotism, devotion to Western civilization, and her sense of humor will be sorely missed. A tough act to follow. An act, in fact, that has not been followed.

RIP Margaret Thatcher.