Anguish and outrage fuel “The Destructionists” a new book by journalist Dana Milbank on the warping of the once respected Republican Party and the collapse of American democracy. He pins the start of the rot on Newt Gingrich’s rise to prominence as Speaker in 1994 and his deliberate promotion of dirty-tricks politics and disinformation, resulting nowadays in a party 70% of whom believe the 2020 election was fixed. Gingrich was one of Donald Trump’s mentors.
Gingrich pushed the conspiracy that Clinton aide Vince Foster was murdered. He defended right-wing militias after Timothy McVeigh murdered 168 people in Oklahoma City. He agitated to oust Bill Clinton over Lewinsky while conducting a less than shining-white private life himself. And he taught the GOP to weaponize paranoia and turn political opponents into demons. All of which as one reviewer writes has ended: “in the era of “alternative facts,” QAnon, Jewish space lasers, anti-vaxxing, birthers and Alex Jones conspiracies about the dead children of Sandy Hook being ketchup-smeared actors in a government plot to seize our AR-15s.”
Mitch McConnell also gets a roasting for tainting and delegitimizing the Supreme Court by turning it into “another political branch of government.”
Gingrich, born 17 June 1943 11.45pm Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has a chart remarkably similar to Trump’s – though worse. He’s a Sun Gemini opposition a Sagittarius Moon squaring onto a can-be-evasive and deceitful 8th house Neptune. Straight-dealing was never his way. He also has a manipulative, superficially-charming Venus Pluto in Leo.
What is intriguing astrologically-speaking, if Milbank is right, is that the Gingrich wrecking-ball years, starting the downhill slide, covered the period that tr Uranus Neptune in Capricorn were colliding with the USA Mercury in Cancer opposition Pluto in Capricorn. That prone-to-rabble-rousers, fanatics and outright liars tendency in the US energy field is, of course, keyed up by the Pluto Return this year and next and was triggered over Trump’s 2016 election by tr Uranus in Aries in square.
It may be a faint hope but perhaps by the time the Pluto Return has done its job, the madness that can be Mercury Pluto will start to recede and sanity and decency be restored.
Geminis do seem to have hooked into the present political scene and surfed the wave of mendacity with deadly effect.
Ahem Ive been flagging the destructive Gemini dynamic in The UK and US, and again and again on this comment section for a number of years Marjorie.
One of the Geminis /Pisces most notable dynamics is absorbing ideas without boundaries or acknowledgement…
Aside from the usual suspects mentioned above lets not forget Russel Brands influencing his 10000s of followers not to vote Labour and changing his mind last minute when it was too late to register.
And of course the troll farms influence on everything everywhere, ultimately Geminian/piscean. Along with the scary clown archetype thrown upby the US subconcious leading up to Trumps election
A lot of Gemini’s in recent years have experienced a square from Neptune in Pisces to their natal Suns. If they have other mutable placements (like Trump and Gingrich), it’s even more highlighted. It’s possible that their capricious, voluble natures and dual-mindedness is being compounded by delusional thinking. Their tendency to challenge convention has been egged on by the populist tendency as of late to tear down all institutions, under the mindset that they have outlived their usefulness or no longer serve the public interest. So perhaps there’s a reason why they’re capturing the zeitgeist, particularly on the right.
The Geminian populist/dictator phenomenon does seem to fit into an age of widening division in all areas, an age in which the political players have set brother against brother, family member against family member. Neptune in Pisces, squaring the natal Suns of these individuals pumping up the delusive nature of populist policies, selling a nostalgic dream of past glory (Imo Pisces is highly prone to nostalgia, especially when you add a Sagittarius Moon into the equation). It was no coincidence that Trump’s years in office were marked by transit Neptune squaring his Gemini Sun. The fact is, the numerous challenges whcih face us require cooperation and unity on the part of populations, not division since Pluto in Aquarius will soon be opposing the natal Plutos of many of the post-war baby boomer politicians in individualistic Leo.
Speaking of grandiose delusion, Trump excelled himself this weekend when addressing the crowd, he called out his White House doctor, Ronny Jackson. “He loved looking at my body. It was so strong and powerful” the former President declared before adding, “I am the healthiest president that ever lived”. The audience rose to its feet and cheered as if it were the truest thing ever said. Neptune in Pisces with Sun in Gemini right there.
How did I miss “the healthiest president that ever lived” comment! Hilarious. The snake oil salesman rules. All this Gemini and mutable sign symbolism is fascinating, a huge game being played out on the world stage it seems. I thought of the fictional character Elmer Gantry, who first surfaced in a novel published in March 1927. A real archetype of a character, manifesting many times in real life.
“Elmer Gantry is a satirical novel written by Sinclair Lewis in 1926 that presents aspects of the religious activity of America in fundamentalist and evangelistic circles and the attitudes of the 1920s public toward it. The novel’s protagonist, the Reverend Dr. Elmer Gantry, is initially attracted by booze and easy money (though he eventually renounces tobacco and alcohol) and chasing women. After various forays into evangelism, he becomes a successful Methodist minister despite his hypocrisy and serial sexual indiscretions.” (Wikipedia)
At that time, we had Mars in Gemini, Jupiter in Pisces, Saturn in Sagittarius, and Uranus in Pisces. Mussolini was already Prime Minister of Italy – his Moon Gemini, Mars Gemini, Pluto Gemini conjunct Chiron, Virgo on the MC. Hitler was building support, slowly. He had Neptune conjunct Pluto in Gemini.
I also noticed that Newt Gingrich’s Neptune in Virgo is just passed the USA natal 22 Virgo Neptune. Neptune had returned there in the autumn of 1939, 22 Virgo. It’s been opposing that degree since 2021. I’m not sure what that means, apart from implications for water, oil, gas, and medicine/drugs. And perhaps a shift in the zeitgeist eventually?
Thanks Jane, that’s interesting about ‘Elmer Gantry’ and Gingrich’s 22 degree Neptune. Of course there can be a religiosity with the Mutable signs too – Sagittarius, Pisces, Gemini and Virgo are a prominent theme in my maternal ancestry and my great grandfather was a clergyman.
Your assessments of political events are always spot on; but, some astrologers are alt-right in their ideology, and I don’t understand how can they draw such oppositional conclusions, compared to your provably accurate interpretations?
First let me begin by saying that it’s important to remember that leading politicians and economists such as JFK and John Meynard Keynes were also Gemini’s so by no means, is this an indictment against them all. That said, there’s clearly something in the coffee many of them seem to be brewing these days because they’re causing a lot of international chaos (Trump, Giuliani, Pence, Xi Jinping, Orban, Boris Johnson, Jordan Petersen etc…) Here in Canada, we’re facing our own potential reckoning with one of these Gemini-sun authoritarian/disinformation types. Pierre Polievre, the primary contender for leader of the Conservative party (thus, potential prime minister when he faces off against the Liberals in the next election) is a populist, “freedom”-toting, anti-choice Gemini. When the so-called Freedom Convoy rolled into the capital city, Ottawa, this past winter, he marched alongside them despite their members being part of white-nationalist, anti-government, conspiracy groups. Given that we’re staring down the barrel of a potential recession which alongside with anger from high gas prices and continuing COVID-restrictions, it’s quite possible that those that would never normally consider voting for his ilk, might just be tempted to this time around. Frightening times indeed.
There’s a certain irony embodied in being an “anti-choice” or authoritarian Gemini. Wanting to choose for everyone, not just yourself. So I’m thinking about the last 12 years and how transiting Jupiter impacted the mutable signs—Jupiter being the “lord” of overreaching.
So both trump and Gingrich are Gem sun/Sag moons?! Ha! So one initiated the destruction and the other completes it. Trump got the Leo rising to put on the finishing touch :-). “So it was in the beginning, so it shall be in the end”.
Coincidence? Wow.
I say being that the correction started with a Leo sun/Gem moon(Obama), we wrap it up and put a bow on top with another of this combo(Landrieu).
Some Astro poetry this would be.
Interesting that Gingrich is a wide-orb Sun-Saturn whereas Trump is Sun-Uranus. The latter would therefore have learned everything and then exploited the gaps to take it on to another level