SPOOF SPACE BY STEELE CODDINGTON | APRIL 17, 2013
Margaret Thatcher – courage, character, common sense ...
Margaret Thatcher was more than an Iron Lady. She was a human British defibrillator who resuscitated a country with economic, social, image and heart problems brought on by the sickness of socialism. She was able to regenerate the hope for better things that rests in the soul of a civilized society. She didn’t just fight destructive union excess, entrenched collectivism, government ownership of industry, punishing taxation and depressing unemployment. She vanquished the evils of socialism by reestablishing the dignity of individual worth, effort and opportunity inherent in the benefits of the free market economic ideal. She restored a country’s conviction that business and individuals aren’t trial balloons to be manipulated in the name of “social justice.” Like her friend Ronald Reagan in America, she believed all citizens can thrive under an economic system that rewards hard work and creates wealth better than any other system ever devised.
The sad thing to reflect on is how devoid the United States is of leaders who have the Thatcherian courage and skill to articulate the effectiveness of proven workable economic solutions. Simply resorting to long proven unworkable schemes of collectivist redistribution that discourage individual and private sector growth only promotes government spending. It is bankrupting the world’s largest economy – creating the same socialist abyss from which Thatcher helped England escape.
Imagine, if you can, watching Margaret Thatcher debating Obama, standing on the same stage together. “The Lady” is looking straight into your eyes, demonstrating leadership by addressing the issues in a style her critics called “handbagging,” an affectionate synonym for her direct, ethical arguments on the merits of sound, proven solutions for governing. Contrast her “handbagging” with “the man’s” agenda best described as “handcuffing” as he shifts his eyes between teleprompters, advocating political solutions that are excuses for “class warfare,” “collectivized fairness,” “redistribution,” “government expansion,” and “stimulus for favored groups.”
A cultural and ideological divide. One a straight-forward simple recitation of a truth with no manipulation, “You don’t grow richer by ordering another check book from the bank.” The other a Pinocchio-like prevarication of failed agendas, “keep your own doctor,” “more affordable healthcare,” “stimulus will work,” “sequester Armageddon,” and “phony deficit reduction.”
The lady’s biographer Charles Moore, summed up her enduring message of hope, “Her doctrines were in essence social doctrines. She believed in individual freedom, but as a part of the rule of law and a devotion to the nation in which a citizen lives.” A brave lady with intestinal fortitude and moral courage so needed, but missing in the pusillanimous abandonment of testicular fortitude of today’s leaders.
