Character versus Characters

Yesterday, a great lady, wonderful thinker, and powerful politician passed away. Former British Prime Minister, Baroness Margaret Thatcher passed away from a stroke at the age of 87. She had been in poor health for the past few years but it was still sad to hear of her passing.

 
In response to a post on Facebook, I made the comment that we all need to have her strength of conviction and character. My comment started me thinking about this great lady and her political life.

Baroness Thatcher, through time, circumstances, and beliefs will forever be associated with President Ronald Reagan. Both are often referred to as polarizing figures. In other words, most people either loved them or hated them. There are likely very few people that have casual feelings forward either one of them.

Maggie is credited with saving Great Britain’s economy. It had become reliant on strongly socialized economic policies and dominated by labor unions, which by their very nature are socialistic organizations. As Prime Minister, Baroness Thatcher promoted and pushed for open markets and capitalistic policies. These polices turned the economy around and saved the British Empire from falling from the edge of economic collapse into total disaster. In doing so, she upset many. Those living on the government dole, those supported by the taxes of others, and those that thought, by action if not actual by intention, that government could lift up the poor by punishing the rich. Many people hated her in spite of the economic prosperity that followed her policies.

I heard the audio clip several times yesterday where she was confronted by a member of Parliament at a time near the end of her service as Prime Minister. He was condemning her because the gap between the wealthy and the poor had widened during her leadership. Showing her character, and her skills as a politician and debater, the Prime Minister responded, “The gentleman would rather the poor be poorer provided that the rich were less rich.” She then went on to note that all economic levels had risen during her time and all were much better off than when she first took office. He is like many politicians who are more concerned about the equality of outcomes as opposed to the equality of opportunity. However, Mrs. Thatcher had the character and convictions to see the benefit that had been seen by all.

Ronald Reagan faced many of the same types of critics here in the United States. Ronnie became President our country at a time it was suffering from the Carter malaise. Our nation was dealing with high unemployment, high interest rates, and a general feeling that the United States had seen the best of its days in the rear view mirror. This man and political twin spirit of Margaret Thatcher began by speaking about the greatness of the United States. He then used his strength of character to begin pushing changes to promote capitalistic policies. He pushed for lower taxes. He pushed for free market policies. He stood for strong conservative values.

And in the process, he made many enemies. He was hated. I was astonished when he passed away to listen to a press that had reviled him suddenly start speaking of him in revered tones. He stood up to the air traffic controllers union that went on an illegal strike and drew the ire of all labor unions. Part of the reason the press disliked him so much was that he had the ability to connect with the common citizen. The press seemed to lose much of their influence during his time in office. He also pointed out the silliness of liberal politicians. I mentioned a favorite quote of Mrs. Thatcher earlier, so here is one of my favorites from the Gipper. “It is not that our liberal friends are ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” I quote that often and it always irritates liberals beyond control.

Yes, both Prime Minister Thatcher and President Reagan made great strides to save the economies of their respective nations and as a consequence, the economies of the rest of the world, even the ones not as free as ours. But I think the strong show of character by both of them was standing up to the Soviet Union during the Cold War and basically winning the Cold War through that strength.

I could continue with examples but I think that I have set a basis of the strength of character of these two great leaders.

The purpose of this post however, in addition to honoring Margaret Thatcher, is to point out that lack of character that we have in today’s politician. Instead we have politicians who are simply characters.

Our current crop of politicians, from both sides of the so-called aisle, show a definite deficiency when it comes to character. But, many of them are characters. They are playing roles. We have a President that stutters and stammers when he is speaking extemporaneously but is praised for his speaking abilities because he is a master of reading a speech off of a teleprompter. We have a Vice President who is almost considered a cartoon character. He quite literally goes day after day making ridiculously inane and stupid remarks. To quote many others, he is a walking “gaffe machine”. On the Republican side we have so-called national leaders who campaign on principles of solid conservatism but when the time comes to stand up for those principles, they cave in and actually vote against the very principles they were elected to defend.

It is with a heavy heart that I remember and honor the life that was Margaret Thatcher. I feel strongly that with her passing, a breed of person and leader has passed from our world and our lives. Where will the next leaders with character, not who are characters, come from?

Rest in Peace Iron Lady.

Eddy


©2013 Eddy Seegers