The True Legacy of Margret Thatcher

I shook hands with Margret Thatcher on my second visit to Williamsburg, VA in 1997 while she was Chancellor at William and Mary.  She spoke at a commencement and I took pictures.  A few years earlier I met Dan Quayle while attending Liberty University.  That’s as much as I have to say about either encounter except that not long ago I went back to Williamsburg with Amy and we got drunk at a bar near the William and Mary campus.  It was a much more rewarding experience.

I forced myself to watch The Iron Lady when it debuted on HBO.  I was pleasantly surprised it didn’t paint Thatcher as the grand savior of England.  Champion of individual responsibility, she even proclaimed “There is no such thing as society, only self”.   Well, to me that’s just about as arrogant, short sighted and pretentious as it can get.   It also fully qualifies her to be the champion of Teabilly’s globally (which is now a concentrated minority in the southern United States.  England has grown up and moved on).  Here’s a list of Thatcher the Milk Snatcher’s achievements.   I would like to hear the conservative response to each since their admiration of self-centered evil is unwavering.  I would be willing to bet most of her US supporters know very little about her antics and comments or they might loath her as much as most Britons.

1. She publicly described Nelson Mandela as the leader of a “terrorist organization”.
2. In 1990 Thatcher was denounced by her own conservative party and ultimately forced to resign her office because she implemented a poll tax that caused rioting in the streets.
3. She embraced censorship, collusion and the documented killing of her citizens through covert operations (Sandbaggers).
4. She wrote off (killed) England’s manufacturing industry and decided she could live with 2-3 million newly unemployed, causing the highest rate of unemployment in England’s history .  I know, it will be hard to find a sympathetic conservative response to the negative effects of unemployment verses any immediate revenue gains for the private sector, benefiting very few.
5. She embraced banking and business deregulation with Reagan, coupled with Clinton’s ignorant repeal of Glass-Steagall, setting the ground work for the 2008 mortgage industry meltdown (Please, tell another lie about Barney Frank twisting the arms of bankers to make sketchy loans to unqualified borrowers.  We haven’t heard this hollow farce enough.  The Banksters made billions so even if it was true they need to send Barney some thank you letters).
6. She chose to embrace draconian military policies in Ireland, never entering negotiations with “terrorists”.  After she left office tensions between Northern Ireland and the British diminished as serious political negotiations proceeded and by 1997 the IRA cease fire became permanent.
7. Her son was found guilty of financing a military coup in New Guinea.  He was given a suspended sentence and a plane ticket home.  A sentence reserved for a select few with connections to the political aristocracy.
8. She never won an election by more than 48% of the popular vote.  This has been called a “landslide” in England but only because they are not a two party system.   So at any point at least half the population did not support her policies.  In the first election she won to become Prime Minister more than 60% of all votes went to other candidates.  Could you imagine the backlash if a US Presidential candidate won office with less than 40% of the popular vote?
9. The woman who despised social services and championed privatization was to have the 5th state sponsored funeral in England during the 20-21st centuries.  The last was Winston Churchill.  This was pre-negotiated by Thatchers representatives and the Queen.   She may even lay in state at Westminster Hall on the Briton’s Euro.  This is actually perfectly fitting because it personifies the blatant hypocrisy always on display by staunch conservatives.
10. She supported the NHS.  Yes, even a woman as conservative as Thatcher could see the benefits and necessity of national health care.  You can’t praise the woman and simultaneously denounce her policy positions.

Want to see how good England’s model of austerity under Thatcher works?  Look no further than Spain or Greece which adopted her model so their aristocracy (sorry…”job creators”) could continue to avoid paying taxes.  Millions are suffering, a tiny few are thriving.  Just the way conservatives seem to like it.