The Lessons of Margaret Thatcher

The Heritage Foundation has a great piece on Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister, and the lessons that can be learned from her.

A number of feminists say that women's political careers have been held back in this country because of sexism, and imply that sexism may hurt Hillary Clinton's chances for president. This is patently false.

Many women's political careers are held back in the United States because so many of the women that run for political office are LIBERAL, often transparently so. And despite the great inroads that liberalism has made in the past 50 years, overall this country still tilts a little right of center.

Margaret Thatcher is a woman I would have no hesitation voting for, were she an American; she'd be better than all but one of the current candidates...and would give that one a run for his money. I served for three years in England when Ronald Reagan was president and Lady Thatcher was Prime Minister. What a pair they made! And what tremendous things she did for England! By the late 1970s, Britain, like America, was faltering under the weight of the liberal policies and societal ideas that came out of the decadent 1960s. Like Reagan did here, Thatcher did much to restore the greatness of Great Britain.

The Heritage piece lists some of her accomplishments:

She smashed the militant mineworkers;

She brought unions back under the rule of law and gave them back to their members by making them accountable;

She conquered inflation;

She turned poor-service loss-making nationalized industries into superior-service profit-making privatized ones;

She stood up to tin-pot Argentinean dictators 8,000 miles away in the Falklands because she believed in the international rule of law, even to the extent of dispatching a task force;

She said NO to Brussels—but not often enough;

She told Bush I not to wobble;

She faced down the IRA despite losing very close friends Airey Neave and Ian Gow and nearly being killed herself;

She sold off public housing;

She took Britain from 19th to second in the OECD; and with President Reagan;

She helped tear down that wall;

The middle classes grew by 17 percentage points or just over half (from 33 percent to 50 percent);

Home ownership grew by 18 percentage points, or just over a third (from 53 percent to 71 percent);

Share-owning more than trebled (7 percent to 23 percent);

Share-owning among trade unionists all but quintupled, to 29 percent (I'll explain how and why later);

Strikes virtually disappeared, and the one place they still take place is the postal service which Margaret Thatcher reportedly refused to privatize because Her Majesty The Queen, Queen Elizabeth II would have been upset at not having her likeness on every stamp;

The percent of workers who are self-employed doubled, to 14 percent

A summary of the ten lessons we can learn from Lady Thatcher:

1. A strong political and moral compass

2. Cut through the nonsense, get to the heart of the matter and communicate it

3. She listened...but in the end she led

4. She championed policies that took human nature into consideration, without trying to make human nature into something it's not

5. She planned ahead, strategically

6. She surrounded herself with smart, dedicated people

7. She took advantage of circumstances

8. She partnered with the best--Ronald Reagan

9. She took time to prepare

10. She tackled problems one slice at a time.

I've read many books on Ronald Reagan and his leadership style. He shared many of these same traits; no wonder they worked so well together.

If an American woman ran for president with many of the qualities and values of Margaret Thatcher, she would enjoy widespread support, instead of the high negative numbers Hillary has (many Democrats support her only because they don't want to see a Republican in the White House).