ACTION ITEM: Study the similarities in character between Baroness Margaret Thatcher and Governor Sarah Palin
Dear HillBuzz,
In the spring of 2010, during my sophomore year of high school, I wrote a biography of Baroness Margaret Thatcher for my world history class. In writing my report, what surprised me the most about Margaret Thatcher was how human she seemed. When I think of politicians, particularly congressmen and presidents, what immediately comes to mind is the stark contrast between my life and theirs. To me, the idea of seeing a politician anywhere but on a television screen or the internet is strange, and the idea of having a conversation with one is stranger still.
However, in reading biographies about Margaret Thatcher for my research, not only did I get the impression that others found her very easy to interact with, but I remembered thinking that even I would probably be able to relate to her without (much) uneasiness or awkwardness if I ever met her. She struck me as a very down-to-earth person. And , so she was.
The daughter of a grocery store owner in Lincolnshire, Thatcher’s childhood was not particularly different than that of any other British girl. If someone who had never heard of her were to read all about her childhood, I imagine they last path they would expect her to have taken in her adulthood would be that of politics. Indeed, her main area of studies in college was chemistry, and she entered politics not of her own initiative, but at the urging of a friend.
These days, it seems as though many people are specifically bred to be politicians: they come from famous political families, they’re taught the inner workings of the political system from birth, and by the time they are of legal age to enter the world of politics, they have been flawlessly trained by their peers, and are ready to fill whichever political office was most recently vacated, likely by someone they grew up knowing. But Margaret Thatcher was something entirely different from the all too common career politician. She was a nobody who came out of nowhere, and she brought to the British government what it was lacking and what it so desperately needed: common sense.
Already, I suspect the similarities between Margaret Thatcher and Sarah Palin are becoming quite obvious: both were viewed as political outsiders, both were portrayed by the media as somewhat simple and uneducated, and both were (and, in the case of Palin, still are) supporters of smaller and more efficient government. In fact, the more one reads about these two intriguing women, the more startling and uncanny their similarities become.
Please encourage your readership to study more on Baroness Thatcher and Governor Palin and find these commonalities on their own.
Thank you,
Dr. Watson
(a Junior in High School)
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HillBuzz Note: What books have you read on Margaret Thatcher that you think are important to gain a good picture of her…as well as to draw those similarities between Thatcher and Governor Palin?
Let’s make March “Baroness Margaret Thatcher Month” here at HB and do the hard study work on Thatcher that will allow us to create a solid body of material on her…which we will then have as a resource for the 2012 campaign.
I bet the Left will recycle a lot of the dusty old attacks on Thatcher and try to use them against the Governor too.
Let’s get ahead of that game, shall we?
Let’s stand behind America’s emerging “Iron Lady” of our own.
© 2011, Kevin DuJan. All rights reserved.
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Claire Berlinski wrote a biography:
http://www.berlinski.com/thatcher
Yes, Lisette is quite right. Claire Berlinski’s recent biography is an easy read, quite good, and contains some subtle insights that I think would have been missed by most male biographers.
(For those very familiar with Margaret Thatcher it doesn’t offer a lot that’s new, but it’s still arguably worth reading for Berlinski’s (and her interviewees) interesting takes on Thatcher and her times).
Thatcher’s own book, Downing Street Years is highly recommended for detailed insights into policies and events during her years as PM.
Her book Path to Power is of interest for those who want to know more about the formation of her thinking and her earlier life, pre-1979.
The 2006 BBC (yes, I know, bunch of lefties) 3-episode program Tory! Tory! Tory! is generally excellent as a look at Thatcherism, more than Thatcher herself. I think it would be especially valuable for people unfamiliar with Britain’s state in 1979, and with the daunting size of the task facing Thatcher. As a TV program it’s an easier, faster introduction than Thatcher’s 1400-odd pages of autobiography!
There are many differences between Thatcher and Sarah Palin, of course. Thatcher was intellectually profoundly rigorous, but somewhat dry, even a tad humorless.
Palin comes across as (and I think genuinely is) a soul with a great deal of humor and warmth.
I would contend (without meaning to be a troll) that Palin lacks some of Thatcher’s intellectual firepower, but amply makes up for it with an ability to read people and project a [again, I think genuine] warm, happy image.
Thatcher ultimately was defeated by her tendency to be a one-woman show, and her neglect of caucus and cabinet relations.
I do not believe these are errors Palin would make.
Holmwood
Everyone needs to see this.
http://annapuna.blogspot.com/2011/02/motivational-poster.html
Our E`owyn.
Worth watching again – unsurpasssed, our Maggie.
Oh – and she was right: labour later did exactly what she said they;d like to do: give up power to the EU…
If you all want to see Palin handle a hostile interview with wit, charm and knowledge you all need to watch this. 65 minutes of pure Palin unscripted and at her charming best. When she can make converts in Long island nothing can stop her….
http://conservatives4palin.com/2011/02/complete-video-of-governor-palins-complete-appearance-at-the-long-island-associations-annual-meeting.html/comment-page-2#comments
I don’t think you’re focusing on the right comparisons here. There are similarities between Mrs. Thatcher’s and Sarah Palin’s careers in that they’ve both been the targets of sexism although the insults directed at Mrs. T. — she was humorless, a scold, a “nanny” — sound more like the taunts that have been thrown at Hilary. And Mrs. T. did bring out the snobbery in British society, most notably in her own party, for her lower-middle-class origins.
But Mrs. Thatcher didn’t come out of nowhere, she was recruited by the Tory party (not by a friend although the friend drew her to the attention of the party) and groomed to rise from the back benches to the front bench for 20 years. She won her first election as an MP in 1959 and became the Prime Minister in 1979. Even before she became leader of the Tory party she was one of the best-known and most controversial politicians in the country. Do you remember “Milk-snatcher Thatcher”? She was not an outsider, she was a dues-paying member of the political establishment.
I’m surprised to hear that your research found quotes from media calling her simple and un-educated. She graduated from Oxford and was a lawyer. I’m sure calling her un-educated wouldn’t have been very convincing.
She was also pro-choice, voting to legalise abortion and to make it available for free through the National Health Services.
I would stick to comparing Mrs. Thatcher’s and Sarah’s political views on tax cuts and limited government spending, which seem to be close. Mrs. T. played an important role in British politics for years before she became the Prime Minister and comparing her experience in governing to Sarah’s is not going to be helpful for Sarah, nor is treating them both like victims.
In fact I think Mrs. Thatcher would resent very much being treated as a victim. She never seemed to think of herself that way.
I encourage everyone to go to Baroness Thatcher’s website.
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/
You can’t consider the strengths of Thatcher without considering Julie Burchill’s tribute to her.
Burchill is a leftist who (warning) doesn’t like HRC, but she says some things that make me think of Palin:
“That’s another thing I liked about the Thatcher phenomenon — her marriage to her Denis. How modern and feminist–triumphalist was that! — Queen Bee and Old Buffer.
“And how strange to find such a gender–flexible marriage on the Right, when it has always ostensibly been the Left that championed the rights of women; the right to stand by your man making goo–goo eyes at him, bake cookies on TV and overlook his ceaseless adultery, it seemed, judging by the behaviour of Cherie Blair (the first of the above rights) and Hillary Clinton (all three, sad cow).
“Denis, on the other hand, was so supremely self–confident/drunk that he didn’t give a fig about being seen as an alpha woman’s consort; with the quiet, amused, ceaseless tolerance of the little woman’s little ways typical of the real man, he was a tower of strength disguised as a bumbling buffoon…
“…never the cretinous yes–man caricature portrayed by some weird lefties who, while paying lip service to feminism, seemed decidedly uncomfortable at the sight of a man walking behind a woman.”
…
“But what I liked more than anything was what she brought out in other people; how she just had to stand there being herself and they’d divest themselves of their civilised veneer, unbidden.
“A whole host of characters who had previously passed for decent revealed themselves as sneering snobs when they applied themselves to Thatcher. Mary Warnock said it made her feel sick to hear that Mrs T bought her a pussy–bow blouse at Marks & Spencer; Jonathan Miller whipped himself into a self–righteous frenzy over “her odious suburban gentility”…
“…And who can forget the caring, anti–sexist Labour Party and its 1983 “Ditch The Bitch” campaign?
“She got it from her own side, too — the drunken Tory grandee who asked her at a Number 10 luncheon while she was Edward Heath’s Education Minister if there was any truth in the rumour that she was a woman.”
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110576
This is a part that had me screaming “Yes! Yes!”, because it articulated something I’ve always hated about the left:
“I’ve noticed over the past few years that when some poor liberal clown wants to deal what he fondly imagines to be the “killer blow” to the Bush–Blair alliance, he’ll draw a cartoon of the Titan Two apparently bending, blowing, buggering and generally being gay with each other.
“In this easy assumption that calling him a homosexualist is the most devastating thing you can do to an enemy, certain sections of the Left reveal their shocking lack of sexual health and sophistication — no wonder some of them have hopped so easily into bed with woman–oppressing, gay–executing Islamic (funda)mentalists.
“Personally, I like Bush and Blair, and do you know what? If I thought they really were serving it to each other on a regular basis, I’d like ’em even more.”
It’s like when they’re trying to disparage small towns and will talk about being in the middle of “butt-f***” nowhere.
The worst insult they can come up with is that the people there are gay.
Is it just me, or does it seen Sarah has been a little quiet lately. Haven’t really heard much from her…or more likely the media is on it’s 30 day ignore of her.
Think she may be doing some “thinking” and “organizing?”
I’m thinking she’s studying the Middle East.
I’m in Alaska right now. Just saw on the news that Palin and Quam are #1 so far in the Irondog snow machine race. I’ll bet Sarah is cheering on her man.
It is a shame that picture is wrecked by that drunk in the top right.
Think outside the box.
Maybe that’s why they made a movie of Margaret Thatcher so they can portray her as an idiot who screws everything up (of course all lies) AND then compare Thatcher to Palin saying they are 2 peas in a pod.
Be careful and watch closely.
The most amazing thing about this article is how well written it is for a junior in high school … this person has a bright future, assuming there was not a lot of adult editing in the article.
Sarah Palin is powerful precisely because she is just herself, not a phony.
Both were mocked for having “common” accents.
Someone wrote an essay last year with advice for Palin to model herself on Thatcher in several respects, but I can’t find it.