Lowry: Thatcher vs. Decline

"Margaret Thatcher is on the cover of Newsweek," writes Rich Lowry at National Review, "or—the next best thing—Meryl Streep is on the cover as the former British prime minister in a new biopic." While Mrs. Thatcher is a rich study in class and gender politics, Lowry suggests

at this moment in our history ... it is Thatcher's central purpose that is most important: her unyielding rejection of British decline. She rejected it with every bone in her middle-class body, even though sophisticates scoffed at such a naive nationalism. She rejected it even though the grandees of her own party said it was inevitable. She rejected it even though she knew reversing it meant forcing a wrenching political and economic crisis... 

Mrs. Thatcher "accomplished what Britain's consensus had once deemed impossible."  As some dare to suggest that America's best days may be behind her, the Iron Lady stands as a great reminder that "decline is inevitable only if its self-fulfilling prophets prevail."