Those were the days my friend. We thought they’d never end….
Indeed, when Margaret Thatcher teamed up with Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II to form a trinity of freedom, stare down tyranny, and pull the western world back from the darkness and despair of socialism, we thought the spectacular results, in political, economic and cultural terms, would ensure the end of a long worldwide nightmare and lead the world into a season of rebirth.
Yes, we thought their leadership would change the world for a long time, if not forever. And it did, in ridding the world of the evil of Soviet communism and re-introducing the principles that built the western world. But in the end, it turned out to be just an all-too-brief interlude which allowed the left to regroup and re-package its disastrous worldview, to rear its ugly head again.
The celebrations over Thatcher’s death and the disgusting movie portrayal of the Iron Lady as an absent parent early and besieged by dementia later are consistent with the left’s demonization of Thatcher and her successful attempts to save a nation on the brink of insolvency. And it demonstrates how utterly shameless the left is in tearing down those who succeed in exposing their lies. But they cannot reverse the reality that Thatcher’s funeral will be the first one for a prime minister attended by Queen Elizabeth since the service for Winston Churchill 48 years ago. The British monarch does not show up for the funerals of garden variety leaders.
Nevertheless, here we are again, fighting afresh against the foe we thought Lady Thatcher, Reagan and John Paul II had vanquished.
This all harkens back to the wisdom in the words of Thatcher’s soul mate Reagan: freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We are now one generation removed from the heady days of Reagan, Thatcher and John Paul II saving the western world from itself, and crushing the Soviet empire without firing a shot. And while the freedom gained through their leadership is not extinct, it is certainly an endangered species.
How to explain nations saved by freedom turning their backs on the very freedom that saved them? The only answer, as in America’s last election, is that we are frightfully naive in believing the collectivism that has failed every time it has ever been tried will now somehow deliver the lofty promises it has never kept. Naive enough to accept the redistribution schemes that have only redistributed economic, moral and spiritual poverty, created addiction-level dependency and seized ever-greater control of the lives of its people.
The challenges faced by the Iron Lady were strikingly similar to those of today, but she had an iron will. Who can forget her exhortation to Reagan’s successor George H.W. Bush, George, this is no time to go wobbly.
As in the words employed by Ted Kennedy to eulogize his fallen brother Robert, Thatcher saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. She saw that socialism was just plain wrong and dedicated her life to righting the wrongs it perpetrated in the lives of tens of millions of people. She saw the suffering of those millions of souls imprisoned behind the iron curtain and tried to heal it by taking down their oppressors. She saw the cold war and tried to stop it, or more precisely, to win it.
Though our nation had once revolted against hers, Thatcher believed passionately in America’s founding principles. Gov. McDonnell reminded us this week of her statement when visiting the Commonwealth in 1995, when I consider all that this place has given to democracy, I am moved to say that in spirit, I am a Virginian
Like Reagan, what made Thatcher extraordinary was the high standards of leadership and accomplishment she set for herself…and achieved.
Like Reagan, she never sought to reason or compromise with the evil empire, but to actually defeat it, to relegate it to the ash heap of history. And they did so in spite of worldwide vilification by leftists and great skepticism among even most conservatives reconciled to the permanence of the Soviet empire.
Like Reagan, she was willing to endure the slings and arrows of hatred from unionists and other leftist individuals and groups entrenched in her own nation and others on the brink of economic collapse.
Like Reagan, she was all in, resolute and unafraid, while carrying the mantle of greatness with great dignity and aplomb.
Like Reagan, the convictions of the Iron Lady, and her word, were ironclad. You could take them to the bank.
And all of this is what made her, like Reagan, the genuine article. A true leader. A great leader. The kind of leader we have not had in the generation since she and Reagan relinquished power. And unlikely as it is that we’ll ever see the likes of this trinity of freedom again, Lady Margaret Thatcher was exactly the kind of leader we are praying will again step forward to save us from ourselves.
