Member Opinion From the Trenches

Ron, Margaret, and John: Some thoughts on the Passing of the Iron Lady

I was saddened that not one of our five living American presidents attended Margaret Thatcher’s funeral.  Had our leaders, past and present, simply forgotten our special relationship with Britain and the great struggle that defined the 20^th Century?

Most of us had learned in school about Britain’s “finest hour,” how, led by the indomitable Winston Churchill, Britain had stood alone against Hitler’s Nazi war machine in the first years of the “big war” until, galvanized by Pearl Harbor, we joined them in their battle against a tyranny.  We had watched countless videos about American GIs fighting side by side with British Tommys to defeat the Third Reich, only to realize before the ink was dry on the surrender, that we now faced an even greater threat to freedom from the communist regimes of Stalin, our recent ally, and of Mao, who both had used the crisis of World War II to enslave half of the world population in their crusade for a one-world, socialist utopia. 

It was then our turn to stand alone against tyranny.  Our “greatest generation,” both Democrat and Republican, had not won WWII only to roll over to a motley crew of international communists.  They went on to fight the communists, toe to toe in a war of varying temperatures, from Germany to Formosa, from Korea to Cuba and Vietnam.  Their children, many of us, grew up under a nuclear umbrella, ducking and covering under our desks while B-52 SAC squadrons carved vapor trails over head.   

After a quarter of a century, however, the communist regimes, which had sacrificed almost 100 million lives in their fanatical zeal to maintain their utopian states, seemed to be growing stronger while the resolve of the free people of the west grew weaker

“We are fighting on the wrong side”, hip American professors, sporting Che Guevara tees under tweedy jackets with brown elbow patches, declared. We had fought capitalistic right wing fascists during the war only to switch sides and attack democratic, left wing communists after the war just to keep the military industrial complex in business, they explained. “The right represents greed, the left social justice; (Yes, this will be on the test.) Just remember the drill, Right-bad; left-good,” they lectured while helping themselves to their student’s easily acquired Pell grant dollars.  Western resolve wavered.

Polish priest John Wojtyla, however, did not waver.  He had seen right wing Nazi thugs and their cult of death when they overran Poland, and he had experienced the same state-sponsored thuggery after being “liberated” by left wing Russian Communists.  He knew first hand that the battle was not between left and right, but it was a universal moral struggle between the sanctity of the individual soul and the tyranny of the Godless state, whether it be represented by the swastika or the hammer and sickle. When John Wojtyla went on to become Pope John Paul II, he championed for human freedom and dignity. 

England, however, was in trouble; America was not far behind. Plagued by inflation and facing a national identity crisis; neither country even had the will to limit its own government much less confront the power of international communism.  The US state department and to the British foreign office counseled peaceful coexistence with communist states. The people of America and England, however, chose a different course. They elected an unlikely duo, President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The two set out to revitalize their countries.  “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem,” Reagan preached as he reduced the size of the bureaucracy.  When the federally employed air traffic controllers struck in violation of the law, he fired them all.  There was a new sheriff in town.  “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money, “ Margaret Thatcher observed as she privatized Britain’s nationalized industries and attacked labor and corporate cronyism that had destroyed England’s competitive edge.  The economies in both countries took off.

Not satisfied with just reviving their own economies, the dynamic duo confronted the Communist slave states.  The US state department cringed, the British foreign office balked, and academics on both sides of the ocean sneered as Ronald Reagan and the “Iron Lady” inveighed against the “evil empire” and the “axis of evil.”  When crazy John Hinkley shot President Reagan, pot smoking undergraduates at Columbia cheered, but Reagan cheerfully stayed the course.  When the soviets promised peaceful coexistence if he would just call off his “star warriors” and their missile defense research, Reagan increased their funding.  When academics and pundits hysterically demanded that he dial back the rhetoric and the funding for defense, he demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”   

When the Berlin wall went down with a joyous crash in 1989, and when the evil empire dissolved before our eyes like the celluloid vampire that it was, we all rejoiced and predicted a new Pax Americana. American and British media credited the victory to Mr. Gorbachev, but most of us knew that Thatcher, Reagan, and John were really responsible.

So why didn’t a single American president attend the funeral of the last of the big three who had the wisdom, the courage, and the moral strength lead the west to victory in its battle for the individual against the power of the Godless state? 

Sadly, some of them had just grown too old to celebrate the heady days of victory over communism. Bill and Hilary Clinton apparently saw no political benefit as they sought to appeal to a generation that had lost its past.  George W. Bush was simply AWOL though Dick Cheney did attend. Barack Obama announced with characteristic lack of irony that he was far too busy imposing gun control legislation on the American people to attend.  

Whatever the reasons, their absence spoke eloquently to the fact that Dame Thatcher leaves very large and very empty shoes.   

Art DeJong (Sheboygan)