12 Apr Dont let Real Feminist Leadership Die with Margaret Thatcher
As the world collectively pays its respects following former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s death on April 8, 2013, we are offered the opportunity to remember her wisdom.
In fact, the best way the world and conservatives can commemorate Margaret Thatcher’s life and achievements is to honor and spread her ideas. She expressed many timeless insights and irrefutable logic on profoundly important subjects.
Here is just a short list of her wise remarks:
- “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”
- “Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.”
- “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
- “Do you know that one of the great problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas?”
- “I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”
- “I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' ' I'm homeless, the government must house me.'
They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbor. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation. - “Consensus: “The process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner: ‘I stand for consensus?”
- “Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.”
- “There are significant differences between the American and European version of capitalism. The American traditionally emphasizes the need for limited government, light regulations, low taxes and maximum labor-market flexibility. Its success has been shown above all in the ability to create new jobs, in which it is consistently more successful than Europe.”
Classic Margaret Thatcher wisdom is on full display in an exchange in Parliament between the Prime Minister and a few hapless liberals trying valiantly but unsuccessfully to attack her ideas. Listen and watch here—it is among the most entertaining and revealing footage available about her.
Margaret Thatcher embodied the truth that genuinely strong women support liberty, and consequently and necessarily oppose big government socialism. Strong women know that everyone suffers under the weight of big government control over society.
Women leaders in America should draw strength and wisdom from Margaret Thatcher’s words and bravery. She righted the ship in England for a time, but the battle belongs to each generation to stand up against the never-ending Left-wing assault on liberty.
America is in the midst of that battle again today, and women ought to be in the forefront fighting for liberty.