How U.S. conservatives and liberals are spinning Margaret Thatcher's death

As stable societies mature, they resemble long-simmering stews — viscous and lumpy with organizations resistant to change and hence inimical to dynamism. Her program was sound money, laissez faire, social fluidity, and upward mobility through self-reliance and other "vigorous virtues." She is the only prime minister whose name came to denote a doctrine — Thatcherism. ("Churchillian" denotes not a political philosophy but a leadership style.) When she left office in 1990, the trade unions had been tamed by democratizing them, the political argument was about how to achieve economic growth rather than redistribute wealth, and individualism and nationalism were revitalized. [The Washington Post]

They knew what they believed but also knew they had to justify their beliefs, and that one could adjust prudently to circumstances without yielding on principle. They stood firm when in power, and they took risks to get there, challenging the conventional wisdom and the respective establishments of their nations or institutions. [The Weekly Standard]

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). [Mother Jones]

Thatcher was also largely responsible for the City of London becoming the financial center of Europe. In 1986, she executed what became known as the "big bang," which deregulated large swathes of the financial industry. That resulted in tremendous growth, especially among private equity firms and hedge funds which rely on heavily leveraged investments. Of course, the abolition of regulations limited how much firms could borrow, meaning that when lots of debt goes bad, that effect spreads easily from institution to institutions. So Thatcher’s deregulations arguably contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, both in their own right and by influencing U.S. policymakers. [The Washington Post]