Michele Bachmann, You’re No Maggie Thatcher

The Republican candidates excel in a lack of erudition, particularly Michele Bachmann. Nevertheless, the American politician compared herself with Margaret Thatcher. Ridiculous, writes philosophy student Dave Boomkes.

Michele Bachmann is making a mess of it. Lack of erudition seems to be more of a requirement than a handicap for Republican candidates, and Michele Bachmann is the personification of intellectual ignorance. However, Bachmann has found a solution: With the premiere of the movie “The Iron Lady” — starring Meryl Streep — she sees an excellent opportunity to promote herself as the American version of Margaret Thatcher. She contorts her own intellectual poverty into the role of traditional pride, just because it’s possible. Perhaps it’s a good thing that Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven is no longer completely aware.

Margaret Thatcher was skilled. Since her school years, she had entrusted herself with a mission: intellectually besting every man within her sphere of influence. With hard labor and doing her political homework perfectly, she made sure that she was always better informed than her colleagues — or even more so, than her opponents. When the opportunity presented itself, she developed her radical agenda, rediscovered herself and settled into the position of anti-establishment misfit.

Her merits did not go unnoticed within the Conservative Party of Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath. She grew more powerful, but never changed into a raging ideologue. Rather, she became an instinctively cautious and pragmatic politician who was mainly interested in delivering decent governance. As such, she believed in the principles of a balanced budget and tax cuts, although she did increase taxes when she deemed it necessary. Her iron will made sure that President Reagan was summoned to 10 Downing Street, where she pointed out to her American colleague the irresponsible increase in the American budget deficit. The political love was sealed, wedding invitations written, engagement rings picked and a golden marriage inaugurated.

God on Earth

Bachmann, on the other hand, is a populist with an overarching anti-Washington philosophy. The imperative of compromise is unknown to Bachmann. Her motivations reside not in the political but in the religious, as if she were a servant of God on earth. Whereas in the Middle Ages the Renaissance rediscovered the direct light of old scriptures after a long twilight, Bachmann still wanders in the obscure and dogmatic lack of emotional awareness of critical human ability. Contemporary science in many fields is thereby being declared false. Bachmann is a fierce advocate of conservative values such as pro-marriage and pro-life (read: anti-abortion). The latter is a very manipulative name for an outdated position, because no one can oppose the idea of life.

Although Thatcher has always claimed to belong to some kind of Christian faith, she never played this card politically. Although she did regularly oppose the principle of permissiveness — where behavior is considered unconditionally acceptable and thus avoids prohibitions ¬¬¬— she thought in terms of libertarianism in the area of socio-sexual matters. As such, she voted in favor of both the liberalization of abortion legislation and the legalization of homosexuality in the 1960s. Even though she enjoyed a large Jewish support base and had personal sympathy for Israel, this never led to an obsessive stand. She was fully aware of the fact that the Palestinians were wronged and she consistently pressed Reagan to push through new peace negotiations, a policy that Bachmann and the right side of the Republican playing field — with the single exception of Ron Paul — would not support.

I recommend that everyone watching the movie “The Iron Lady” take note of the obvious differences between Bachmann and Thatcher. Hollow rhetoric cannot be polished by wishful thinking into making this a present-day embodiment of traditional pride. It is therefore worth repeating the legendary words of Lloyd Bentsen (former running mate of the Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis) and applying them to Bachmann. Once upon a time, Bentsen made a big impression in a television debate with his Republican opponent Dan Quayle. When Quayle compared himself to John F. Kennedy, Bentsen grabbed his lectern and spat into the microphone: “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.” May an American happily come forth to paraphrase the words of Bentsen in a contemporary context: Michele Bachmann, you’re no Maggie Thatcher.