Examining the Impact of Lady Thatcher’s Legacy for the Next Generation
By Dan Kochis | The Save Jersey Blog
The world lost a great leader today, a political figure who unabashedly advanced bold conservative ideals and stood as a bulwark of freedom against the repression of the Soviet Union and against the intrusions of the state in her own nation.
As was once said of Abraham Lincoln, Margaret Thatcher now “belongs to the ages.” The question that will one day be answered is will future generations draw lessons from her fortitude in the face of adversity? Will they tirelessly defend and advance the cause of freedom, which is under constant assault in today’s world, both overt and stealthily from a an energized liberal movement that appropriates for itself the very victories that freedom forged, while surreptitiously eroding the foundations of freedom by extolling a narrative that freedom as a principle is ordinary, malleable, and at times, old-fashioned?
Margaret Thatcher faced similar arguments, an emboldened liberal orthodoxy, and seemingly insurmountable odds. Her tenacity, conviction, and courage won the day for freedom and ushered in an era of economic prosperity in Great Britain and helped set of a wave of freedom that washed across the parched lands of the former Soviet bloc, reigniting the flame of freedom for millions who had formerly been imprisoned in an iron shell.
Conservative leaders of all stripes, but especially those young leaders and the leaders yet to come should look to the legacy of Lady Thatcher.
Freedom cannot be compromised; it must constantly be tended and at times defended. Against all odds, Margaret Thatcher stood up to the political establishment in her own country who said that the bureaucracy and excessive regulation could not be reformed. She defended freedom against the aggression of the military junta in Argentina and against the communist juggernaut in Moscow. What she knew was that freedom could not be compromised.
The values that self-styled progressives hold so dear, equality, diversity, and tolerance, all owe their life force to the protection and nourishment that freedom provides. What the American founding fathers knew, what Lady Thatcher knew, is that freedom is the foremost principle in the pantheon of democracy. It’s existence and strength guarantees all the rest. This is the core argument that conservative leaders need to articulate, that the leaders of the next generation of conservatives need to rededicate themselves to:
Government control of the economy, the chocking effect of regulation, the distorting effect of blind adherence to the deity of redistributive politics, these all shackle freedom and hurt prosperity.
The next generation of leaders needs to talk about how freedom of speech is under attack from the dogma of political correctness. Talk about how freedom of the press is largely an aberration now that traditional media outlets have been tamed by an instagram obsessed President whom they follow with blind adherence. Talk about how freedom of religion is under assault, from both a government that imposes its will against the conscious of a religion, and from secular elite who scoff at the very notion that an intelligent person could possibly believe in a higher power. Talk about the recent foreign policy of appeasement and weakness that has left the country less safe, the world more chaotic, the future more uncertain.
What our new generation of conservative leaders should take from Margaret Thatcher’s legacy: when things look most grim, that’s when reinforcing the watchtowers of freedom is the most important.
