5283b743   
   XPost: alt.alien.visitors, alt.alien.research, alt.paranet.abduct   
   XPost: alt.conspiracy   
   From: garymatalucci@gmail.com   
      
   Bursting the Thatcher Bubble   
      
   The canonization of Margaret Thatcher began with nanoseconds of news   
   reports that the former British prime minister and conservative icon   
   had died at the age of 87. On MSNBC, my pal Chuck Todd remarked, "We   
   lionize her over here." There was insta-commentary about how she saved   
   Britain from economic despair and the rest of the world from the   
   Soviets (with some help from a guy named Ronald Reagan). Excess ruled.   
   Two small examples: Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the Democrat running for   
   Congress in South Carolina (and sister of Stephen Colbert) issued this   
   statement: "When I talk to younger women about their careers, I point   
   to Margaret Thatcher as a role model; she's a tough consensus builder   
   who cared about everybody and put her country's fiscal house in   
   order." Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) proclaimed,   
      
   Baroness Thatcher's record of creating explosive economic growth and a   
   stronger nation by embracing conservative values makes the utter   
   failure of Obama's stale liberalism starker and more disturbing…She is   
   still hated by leftists who would rather live in equalized misery than   
   allow people to achieve as much as they can work for, leftists who now   
   hold the levers of government in the United States…While many mourn,   
   Baroness Thatcher reminded us "I fight on I fight to win." The best   
   way to honor Baroness Thatcher is to crush liberalism and sweep it   
   into the dustbin of history. What are you doing this morning to defeat   
   liberal politicians?   
      
   Thatcher was no consensus builder; she was divisive. She set out to   
   crush unions, privatize, undercut the social safety net (where she   
   could), and push free-market policies that led to the deregulatory   
   nightmares of the future. (Just watch Billy Elliot—or listen to the   
   Clash.) She joined with Reagan in support of torturers and human   
   rights abusers around the globe, as long as these folks were opposed   
   to the Soviets. She called Nelson Mandela a "terrorist" and would not   
   join the worldwide crusade against the racist apartheid regime of   
   South Africa. (In 2006, Conservative Party leader David Cameron felt   
   obliged to disown Thatcher's and his party's previous opposition to   
   Mandela and his African National Congress.) She supported Chilean   
   dictator Augusto Pinochet. Her war in the Falklands struck many as an   
   orchestrated stunt, not an act of necessity—though some have seen that   
   military action as a noble blow against Argentina's fascist junta   
   (which the Reagan administration was supporting).   
      
   Her economic policies were harsh. She pushed the so-called poll tax—a   
   tax to fund local government—that resulted in shifting the tax burden   
   from the well-to-do toward lower-income Brits. This tax provoked riots—   
   literally—and was so unpopular that her successor, John Major,   
   replaced it. And as Bruce Bartlett, an economist who served in the   
   Reagan administration noted two years ago, Thatcher shifted the   
   overall tax burden from top to bottom. She cut the top personal income   
   tax rate from 83 percent to 60 percent, but raised the lowest rate   
   from 25 percent to 30 percent. To pay for her tax cuts, she nearly   
   doubled the value-added tax from 8 percent to 15 percent. (Some   
   American conservative economists howled about this.) As Bartlett put   
   it, "Thatcher's fiscal accomplishments were much more modest than many   
   of today's Republicans think." (Here's a quick assessment of her   
   overall economic policies.)   
      
   A long obit in the Guardian by Michael White cites her "willpower and   
   courage" and maintains that Thatcherism "changed the way Britons   
   viewed politics and economics, as well as the way the country was   
   regarded around the world." But the article notes certain facts   
   necessary for any balanced appraisal:   
      
   As education secretary—prior to becoming prime minister—she cut school   
   milk for elementary school children and won her first nickname,   
   "Thatcher the milk snatcher."   
      
   She pushed "a high-risk, deregulated market-orientated system in which   
   the poverty gap widened rapidly and 'loadsamoney' rewards at the top   
   rocketed in ways frowned upon in Europe and Japan. With 'big bang'   
   deregulation…in 1986 paralleling developments in Ronald Reagan's   
   United States, the path was open to the financial crisis that engulfed   
   Anglo-Saxon capitalism in 2007."   
      
   She defeated the unions—especially the miners, in a series of   
   challenges. But most deep-mine pits in England ended up closing.   
      
   She brooked little criticism. She sacked party members who questioned   
   her divisive practices: "'Is he one of us?' became a stock Thatcher   
   question, asked of impartial civil servants and even would-be   
   bishops."   
      
   Her political career essentially ended when her own Cabinet told her   
   that due to the unpopularity of her policies she should step down and   
   allow another Conservative Party member to lead their party.   
      
   Thatcher was a historic figure. But that does not mean she was a great   
   leader.  She was not the total conservative that American right-   
   wingers have worshipped for years. She regarded climate change as a   
   serious threat. Her government moved early against HIV/AIDS and   
   outlawed corporal punishment. But in the aftermath of the demise of   
   the Iron Lady, the first woman to become a British prime minister is   
   generally being lauded from the US right and the middle as a hero for   
   her country and the globe. This Thatcher bubble will not last forever.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)