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INAUGURATION 2001
PART 7
The "Also
Running":
Ralph Nader
by Zip Dobyns
In addition to the candidates of the two
major political parties, the Democrats and Republicans, the U.S. presidential
sweepstakes are complicated by several other candidates. Ralph Nader
is running for the Green Party. The Reform Party, which was founded in
1992 by H. Ross Perot, had a schism in 2000 and its mantle, and more
importantly its government money, is being claimed by two candidates.
Pat Buchanan officially resigned from his lifetime as a conservative Republican
to join the Reform Party. John Hegelin, who previously ran as a candidate
for the Natural Law Party which was founded by the followers of Transcendental
Meditation, also made a bid to lead the Reform Party. Their Long Beach,
CA convention in August 2000 split into two competing factions. Pat claimed
a majority of the members of the Reform Party, and they nominated him
on August 11, 2000. John’s group, which included a large number of individuals
opposed to Pat’s social ultra-conservatism, adjourned to a different hotel
where they declared a union with the meditators to form the Reform-Natural
Law Coalition. The Coalition nominated Hegelin as their candidate at
their convention on August 31 to September 2 in Alexandria, VA. At least
one more “also-running” candidate can be mentioned: Harry Browne represents
the Libertarian Party whose commitment to total individual freedom sometimes
approaches the Anarchists.
I have full birth data for Ralph Nader, as
usual thanks to Lois Rodden’s data bank. Its source is Nader himself,
giving it to an acquaintance from memory. He was reportedly born on February
27, 1934 in Winsted, CT, at 4:52 AM EST. Pat Buchanan’s data is also
available with a tentative birth time: November 2, 1938, at 0:20 AM EST,
in Mt. Vernon, NY: 42 N 45’ 14”, 78 W 53’ 27”. John Hegelin’s birth
date and place are in the public record as June 9, 1954 in Pittsburgh,
PA, and I have his birth time from a meditating friend as 7:13 AM EDT.
Both Buchanan and Hegelin may need to be classed as C data in the Rodden
rating system. It stands for caution. So far, I have no data on Harry
Browne. If any readers have his data, it would be much appreciated.
The Republican candidate for Vice President is Dick Cheney. We have his
date as January 20, 1941, in Lincoln, NE, but I have no birth time for
him. Birth data for any of the people running for VP in the other Parties
would be welcome!
We will start with Ralph Nader, a prominent
lawyer who has been a lifetime consumer advocate and critic of corporate
America. Nader has devoted his life to fighting for safer products and
working conditions in industry, and has had a real and positive impact
in that area. He is also a strong environmentalist, so his leadership
of the Green Party is appropriate. He ran for president for their Party
in 1996, but with minimal results in terms of money raised and numbers
voting for him. He seems to be making much more effort in 2000, and to
be having more effect, especially on the west coast.
Anna Quindlen had a good article on page
64 of the August 28, 2000 issue of Newsweek. She suggests that Nader
has built his campaign on a “big lie,” that there is no appreciable difference
between the Democrats and the Republicans, and between their candidates.
She says she is mystified that this idea is accepted by many, pointing
out that there are major differences on many issues. She lists several,
and I would add more, including gun control, abortion rights, affirmative
action, the minimum wage, gay rights, huge tax reductions which mostly
benefit the wealthy, drug benefits for the elderly, health insurance for
low income workers and their children, ending any taxing of inheritances,
tax money given to private (mostly religious) schools without any oversight
on how it is spent, etc.
According to Quindlen, Nader’s platform includes
nationalizing the Fortune 500 companies, the biggest in our country; taxing
at the rate of 100% any income over 10 times the minimum wage; reappraising
keeping animals in zoos; and teaching vegetarianism in schools. Basically,
he opposes globalization and the power of big business in general. Despite
the extremism of these ideas, Nader is winning converts who are disgusted
by the control of big business over the government. As Quindlen points
out, there is a real danger of alienated liberals producing enough protest
votes to give states to Bush which would normally go to the Democrats.
On Newsweek’s Periscope page, “swing” states which could go either way
are listed as MI, MN, OH, OR, PA, and WI. CA is the biggest plum of all,
and Nader could be a “spoiler” for Gore in this state, which would be
expected to be solidly in the Democratic group. Quindlen describes Nader
as a purist, an “all or none” person who once told a friend that he had
never married because he could not have both a family and a cause. Reading
that, I immediately expect a strong Vesta in addition to an emphasis on
the fixed sides of life and letters nine and twelve. For starters, Nader’s
Vesta aspects all of his major angles. It is in 2 Libra 50, where it
is octile his MC, trine his Ascendant, trioctile his East Point (with
the north lunar node and Saturn connected to it by conjunctions), and
it is quincunx his Antivertex. Chiron, our little Jupiter, completes
a grand trine to Vesta and the Ascendant.
It is fascinating to note the similarity
between Nader’s and Liebermann’s charts with their stelliums in Aquarius
and Pisces, both having Aquarius rising and Suns in Pisces. Both also
have an emphasis in Taurus--Joe though occupied signs and Ralph with a
strong Taurus house. Both have Neptune in the seventh house and the lunar
nodes across the first and seventh houses. So, much that was written
about Joe could be said about Ralph, but where Joe married, divorced,
and re-married, Ralph never married, staying “married” to his idealistic
causes. I wonder about Ralph’s relationship with his mother, since his
Moon is on his south lunar node in the seventh house, suggesting a lesson
connected to a mother figure or grandmother that colored his ability to
form a close, lasting relationship. Nader is described as “cold,” or
“like a monk”. His Leo Moon-node potential for warmth would appear to
be largely projected. Ceres, another key to one’s mother, was in Aries
conjunct Uranus, square Pluto, opposite Jupiter, and octile the Sun.
Added to the need for personal freedom shown by the first house Aquarius,
the combination suggests tension around nurturing or being nurtured.
I know that Joe had a warm and loving relationship
with his family, but I lack any information on Nader’s relationships with
his parents. His rising Saturn shows a father figure as a personal role
model, but until we question him and/or look at his life, we don’t know
whether he wanted to be like or the opposite of the father, or sometimes
some of both. As with all of the major issues which we can conceptualize
with astrology, the freedom-closeness dilemma can express in many different
ways. We may want closeness and feel that our parents cannot or do not
provide it. Or we may lose our parents early. Or we may want personal
freedom and resist attempts by parents to get close. With a Leo Moon
in the seventh house, we may look in vain for a partner who is like loving
mother, often without any conscious awareness of that desire in the subconscious.
We may choose to “mother” others rather than risk being possessed and
controlled by others. To fully understand people, we need their horoscopes,
AND life histories of what they have done, AND a personal interview to
discover the level of conscious understanding they possess. Character
(habits) creates destiny. Only when we change our habits can we change
our destiny.
Nader is the one candidate for whom I have
data who lacks an asteroid with a personal name, unless he has a middle
name which I don’t know. Some of the asteroids named for other players
in this political drama are intriguingly connected to Nader’s relationship
to that “mother” principle. N Monica was on his Moon, and his P south
lunar node remains conjunct them for years. N Albertine and Phaethon
(overreach and a fall) are on his Ceres, and P Uranus stays on them for
years. Whatever psychological issues remain unresolved in one’s unconscious
will attract other people who challenge us and push us to deal with those
issues. The Aries set of four factors also squares Nader’s local Ascendant
in Washington DC, which is in 27 Capricorn 45. P Williams (for Bill Clinton)
was moving over the Aries group for several years, and it is still conjunct
Nader’s local P Antivertex in 29 Aries. We can only speculate on what
Nader was feeling as he watched the libertine life style of Clinton.
P local Ascendant is conjunct Nader’s P Sun,
and the latter is within one degree of a square to his P north lunar node.
P Venus is octile/trioctile the T-square of the nodes and Sun-local Ascendant
to reinforce the potential for power struggles. And, even more emphatically,
the P midpoint of Saturn/south node is closely conjunct Nader’s P Ascendant
from his birthplace, and they are square his N Saturn. I interpret the
Saturn/node midpoints as keys to major lessons in one’s life, and Saturn
is always a key to the rules of the game and the consequences of how we
have handled the rules.
Another interesting grouping includes N Williams
in 17 Pisces and N Mars, P Arnolda (for Gore’s middle name), P Richard
(for Cheney), and P Sophia (wisdom) in 18 Pisces. Astrology shows issues,
not details. All of these individuals might be challenged to acquire
wisdom, each in their own way. N Pallas and N Mercury in 19 Pisces fit
Nader’s involvement with the law and politics. The progressing asteroids
are moving to conjunct Pallas and Mercury, and we will see whether Gore
or Cheney win the right to influence the US laws and politics. The odds
of Nader being anything other than a “spoiler” for Gore are very small.
He might end up helping Bush, though certainly not intentionally.
N George (for Bush) in Nader’s chart is in
12 Sagittarius, and his local P Ascendant is just ending a quincunx to
it at the election in November. The quincunx is typically a sign of change,
but the change influenced by Nader’s action (Ascendant) could help or
hinder George. The message is precisely repeated with P George in 21
Sagittarius quincunx Nader’s P Ascendant from his birthplace. It is that
kind of specificity with asteroids that blows my mind, but we still have
to wait to see what happens as the life details play out in the different
lives.
There is so much material available when
we add the extra asteroids, it is hard to decide what to include and when
to stop. We have noted the potential for violence in some of the previous
charts, especially in McCain’s and Gore’s charts. In Nader’s chart, one
configuration includes P Albertine in 3 Gemini opposite N Tyr (Norse Mars)
and Elizabeth (Tipper’s middle name) in 3 Sagittarius, square N Hela (death
goddess) in 3 Virgo, with the N Part of Death in 2 Pisces and P Icarus
in 4 Pisces. Overlapping orbs form a grand cross. N Albert in 18 Cancer
is octile/trioctile the cross. P Albert is just ending a conjunction
with Pluto at the election. As indicated in other chart interpretations,
astrology can point to death as an issue if one is a spectator of it,
or a cause of it, or a victim of it. I would assume that Nader is more
likely to be the spectator, rather than the cause or the victim.
I will end, somewhat arbitrarily, by returning
to more traditional astrological factors. Nader’s P Moon, which can signify
the public as an extension of its principle of emotional security, home,
and the baby-mother relationship, will be just ending a conjunction with
his N local Ascendant and just about to start a conjunction with his P
MC at the election. The combination supports his continued impact on
the public and the consequences of their reactions, which will affect
his power in the world. If his birth time is accurate, his P MC started
a two-year conjunction with his N Ascendant in April 2000. The P Moon,
of course, will continue on over his N Ascendant until about the time
of the inauguration of the next president. What effect will Nader’s reaction
to the election have on the public? And on his own issues with the "mother
and "father" ” principles? MC and Capricorn signify father,
among other meanings. The Moon signifies mother, among other meanings.
The Ascendant signifies personal identity and action. Does Nader identify
himself as "parent of the world," and feel guilty if his ideas
are not made into law?We will be watching, but with a reserved, emotionally
controlled man, we may never know…
Copyright ©
2000 Los Angeles Community Church of Religious Science, Inc.
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