The Reagan/Thatcher revolution: think how much worse it would be, without their revolution.

Salute the Reagan and Thatcher revolution

by Bruce Anderson

The Reagan/Thatcher revolution was much the most important event in peacetime Twentieth Century history. Though neither leader had read Spengler, both set out to refute him. He proclaimed the decline of the West. They pronounced an anathema on decline and set about persuading their peoples that the best was yet to be.

It is important to remember just how bad everything was in the darkest hour before their rescue mission began. America had lost a war, and a President. Although Richard Nixon had a title to greatness, his personality was founded on flaws. It would require Shakespeare to do justice to his tragedy. After Vietnam and Watergate, liberal extremists did everything possible to bring aid and comfort to America’s foes, abetted by a weakling President. Jimmy Carter might have enjoyed life as an Old Testament prophet, but he lacked the presence and the eloquence. A little man, he seemed to delight in belittling his country.

At home, America was beset by pessimism. The purveyors of gloom insisted that energy was running out, while the economy was doomed to stagnation: living standards, to decline. Books were written on the greying of America, as if the closure of the American frontier would be followed a few decades later by the closure of the American dream. Abroad, America was beset by weakness. Soviet surrogates were making gains in Central America and Southern Africa. Europe was full of uncertainty. The Cold War was not going well for the West.

In the UK, it was far worse. The two most recent Conservative administrations had ended in failure and defeat. The two most recent governments had been defeated by the trade unions, which were virtually outside the rule of law and often run by Soviet sympathisers. Inflation was chronic, exchange controls made it hard to take more than fifty pounds out of the country, while nationalised industries plundered the taxpayer to fund obsolescence and low productivity.

It was widely believed that British economic decline was irreversible. In Whitehall, there was a lot of covert talk about the orderly management of decline – as if that were the highest aspiration open to any government. Until early 1979, it did not seem impossible that Margaret Thatcher would lose to Jim Callaghan, who would have governed in a concordat with the trade unions: the avuncular personification of orderly decline. A lot of bright youngsters were in despair.

Then dawn broke. It was easier in America. Guided by his limitless faith in his own people – when he wanted to find out what they were thinking, he just had to look into his own heart – President Reagan knew what was needed. He reasserted those two crucial unwritten passages in the Bill of Rights. First, that this year shall be better than last year, and that next year shall be better than this year. Second, that each and every American shall have the right to work his butt off and keep a goodly proportion of the proceeds. As for government, when it came to the economy it was best employed cheering on America from the sidelines.

A thoughtful man with a great deal of self-confidence and moral depth, Reagan did not need intellectuals to tell him what was right. He knew what was right.

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