RIP Margaret Thatcher

Ken AshfordHistory, In PassingLeave a Comment

Well, put me down as "not a fan", but you can't deny her impact.  I lived in England for a year under her reign, and boy did that woman polarize her people.  The mother of modern conservatism, she deregulated the hell out of the country and fostered in a decade of selfishness, which took root here in the United States under Reagan.

I will give her props for being anti-apartheid, and more in tune to the AIDS crisis than Reagan was (although she did denounce Nelson Mendela).  She also was a huge supporter of socialized medicine, raised taxes throughout her tenure, and was an early believer in climate change science.  Unfortunately, this would make her "liberal" by today's standards.

I suspect many Brits will remember her for her horrible union-busting, the thing you see in Billy Elliott.  She propped up Saddam Hussein, and look how that turned out.

But her place in history, for better or worse, is secure.  Cue the inevitable mountain of hagiography from the right.

 

P.S.  She was in my 2013 Dead Pool.