A research chemist turned lawyer who became a elected representative of the people of Finchley, Margaret Thatcher changed the world.<\/p>\n
Margaret Thatcher<\/p><\/div>\n
As Great Britain\u2019s longest-serving (and only female) Prime Minister, \u201cThe Iron Lady\u201d fought Liberalism and championed Conservative policies that won a war, rejuvenated the national economy and defeated the Soviets.<\/p>\n
Margaret Thatcher passed away today, April 8, 2013. She was one of my heroes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And mine, too. \u00a0Although it took a while.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was still very much a liberal – in my self-induldgent, bobbleheaded adolescent way, which is really not a whole lot different than liberals of any age, so I’ll give myself a pass – when Thatcher took office. Being as tuned into Brit pop-culture – which has long led Hollywood at painting the left’s cultural toenails – I fumed along as she broke the steelworkers strike, and railed at what declared her “jingoism” in my shrill, strident way. \u00a0 And 25 years before Sarah Palin, she got all the same brickbats liberalism reserves for all apostate women and minorities; I nodded along as a liberal teacher referred to her as an “ersatz woman” during the Falklands war.<\/p>\n
But as I started to understand conservatism, I also started to understand that the Iron Lady was the real thing.<\/p>\n
She was right about socialism – and in an era when Republicans fret about “messaging”, she got it:<\/p>\n