Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was known as the Iron Lady and that’s pretty much the most efficient way to describe her.
So it was kind of maverick and completely surprising to see the aging pop star Madonna pay tribute to her on Instagram recently. Here’s what the post said:
The Margaret Thatcher quote:
“If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.”
What wisdom in these words and certainly a great thing to share with fans. Madonna added “Thank you Margaret Thatcher” and the hashtags #unapolgetic [sic] and #rebelheart.
So you know exactly what happened next. She quickly deleted the post after people criticized her on social media.
It’s almost as if Madonna set out to be liked and was prepared to compromise on anything and achieved nothing.
Why would Madonna delete this? Thatcher was awesome and oh, right…tolerance. http://t.co/hkoHpjO9EA HT @noyokono pic.twitter.com/S0ZX5s2kiG
— Jose Galvan (@Jose_Galvan) April 20, 2015
Even more embarrassing than the original deletion was the media’s bizarre reaction to the tweet and how it was pulled. Rather than mocking her for not being able to live up to the quote for more than a few minutes, the media acted like it was totally understandable that a social media mob went after the popular former prime minister.
A site called “The Wrap” accused Madonna of thoughtcrime and posted some tweets that they said were of fans voicing their displeasure. Here was one of the tweets they posted:
Madonna deleted an instagram post praising Margaret Thatcher. Might want to avail of the "rent-a-spine" business that Thatcher once proposed
— Niall (@niallBADERg) April 20, 2015
Not to do the thoughtcrime of sharing another Thatcher quote, but Niall here was referring to Thatcher’s line: “When I’m out of politics I’m going to run a business, it’ll be called rent-a-spine.” Niall may have been voicing displeasure but not at Thatcher. Sheesh.
Madonna has wrapped herself up in controversy by lauding the late, controversial British leader Margaret Thatcher: http://t.co/HVNIPxhOs4
— billboard (@billboard) April 21, 2015
Oh come on. “Controversial” is one of the sillier descriptors journalists can use and have you noticed they only use the term for certain politicians? Like, does Billboard call Barack Obama controversial any time a celebrity signals support for him? I do not even need to do a site search to know the answer is no.
If you post "inspirational" quotes on Twitter, it pays to know a little about the person you're quoting. http://t.co/61SEEF0494
— Craig Hawes (@CRHawes1) April 22, 2015
Like you should know that Margaret Thatcher is the British female equivalent of the George Washington described in this completely unsafe for work and profanity-laced YouTube. She was the most powerful woman in the world and she helped defeat Communism. She enraged her critics and left them utterly unable to defend themselves. She was not able to be bullied, unlike every half-wit politician we have now. Stuff like that. And this:
Eat your heart out, all other politicians.
I liked Madonna back when she was making music you could dance to and actually pushed boundaries and showed women as powerful. I gather that’s not happening so much now but I’m not entirely sure. But her quick deletion of the awesome Thatcher quote proves she’s not worthy to be mentioned in the same breath.
