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INAUGURATION 2001
PART 9
PAT BUCHANAN – A FIGHTER
by Zip Dobyns
When I first started in February 2000 to write this series of articles about candidates running for the US presidency, I knew about the two main political parties, and that there were a few more including the Reform, the Green, the Natural Law, and the Libertarian Parties. I had also heard about a party whose main platform focused on abolishing the income tax, and that there was still a Socialist Party in existence. But, just last week, Mark alerted me to a web site called “Politics1.com which claims to list ALL the candidates. I was astounded to find 11 functioning parties, plus a twelfth which is no longer in the race. Even more astonishing, 87 individuals are said to be currently running for president as independents, and an additional 26 have dropped out for various reasons. Of the 87 still theoretically running, 5 have female names, 2 have names which could be either sex, which leaves at least 80 males who think they could or should be president.
Patrick Buchanan is one of the “also-running” candidates, but he has much more name-recognition that most. Pat was born on November 2, 1938 in Mt. Vernon, NY, possibly at 0:20 AM EST. There are two cities in New York with the same name, so make sure you have 42 N 45.2, and 78 W 53.4. His data should probably be listed as C for caution, but the chart does fit his life.
Pat has been immersed in politics for years; as a media commentator and talk-show host, as a speechwriter and appointee in more than one administration, and as a previous candidate for president as a Republican who failed to win his Party’s nomination. In 2000, Pat changed his affiliation from being a life-long conservative Republican to running as a candidate for the Reform Party which was founded by H. Ross Perot in 1992. One inducement for the change was the fact that the Reform party had gotten enough votes in the 1996 campaign to earn 12.5 million dollars in federal matching funds for the current campaign. That sum may be peanuts compared to what George W. Bush has raised in donations for his campaign, but it will still buy a good bit of TV time. Another inducement was, of course, that Pat could not win the Republican nomination.
Pat has strong beliefs and he expresses them vigorously. He can be a spellbinding orator to those who share his views, and is considered a religious bigot and isolationist by those with contrary views. One of his main supporters is a weekly newspaper called The Spotlight which would like to keep foreigners out of the US, prevent US companies from building factories in other (low-wage) countries, repeal the income and inheritance taxes, and in general roll back globalization. Pat is for “America First,” is anti-semitic, anti-abortion, pro the death penalty and pro guns. He grew up in a large, Catholic family, though he is closer in his beliefs to the Christian fundamentalists. He was reportedly a fighter from early childhood, but has switched from fists to words.
Turning to Pat’s chart, we can see the characteristic aspects for a power-struggle life. He has a fixed-sign cross in cardinal houses, a cardinal-sign cross in a mix of cardinal and fixed houses, and a few mutable-sign squares in the bargain. Both the cardinal and the fixed parts of life face the same dilemma, though in different ways. Individuals with conflict aspects involving these planets, houses, and/or signs are learning how to balance personal desires and rights against the desires and rights of others. They need competitive outlets, and can have successful and effective lives if they make competition a game, winning some, losing some, but not turning it into life-and-death struggles. The professions of law and politics or a competitive business are very suitable for them, and if they are idealistic, they may find their niche in fighting for a cause.
Pat’s idealism is shown by the powerful Jupiter placed exactly on his Descendant, quincunx Neptune exactly, and trioctile Chiron, the other key to our search for the “Absolute.” He also has his Moon and Pallas in Pisces plus Pluto and his East Point in the Pisces house, along with Venus and Juno in Sagittarius and Saturn in the Sagittarius house. Since Saturn is always a lesson, the part of life where we are learning the “rules of the game,” Pat needed to learn the limits of self-will (Aries) and to develop a realistic faith in the “Absolute” (ninth house). With Saturn in Aries in the ninth house, there is a danger of assuming that he personally knows God’s will and that he has the right and the power to enforce it on others. Saturn is closely square Chiron, another Jupiter as a key to one’s faith and the ethics based on it, and it is more widely opposite Mars, which repeats the need to integrate personal will and the limits of personal will. Vesta’s square to Mars from the Saturn sign and the natural house of the Sun repeats the issue of needing to integrate personal will and the handling of power.
Pat’s Leo Ascendant, as well as Pluto and the East Point in the sign, repeat the emphasis on power in his nature. His south lunar node in the tenth house says again that handling executive power and the “law” is a growth area in his life. Individuals with Uranus and/or the south node in the tenth house tend to resist being controlled by anything or anyone. Like Nader and Hegelin, Buchanan did not have children, though he is married. His tenth house Ceres and fifth house Capricorn fit his choice of a career rather than a family. I have seen many charts with either Vesta or Capricorn in the fifth house who said, possibly subconsciously, “if I can’t do it right, I won’t have children. My career is too all-consuming to take the time and energy for children.” Like his third party competitors, Nader and Hegelin, he seems to be expressing his parental potential in his career, seeking to mange and “save” the public.
Conflict aspects in the fixed sides of life can be explosive, as irresistible forces meet immovable objects. If Pat’s birth time is right, you can’t get a much tighter fixed-sign cross than his Ascendant, Mercury, Jupiter, and Ceres. With Mercury added to the conflict configuration of the idealistic planets which were mentioned previously, Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron, Pat’s conscious mind is totally involved in the mental struggle. With mutable planets in fixed signs, we often find some kind of religious or ethical inner war which seems interminable, incapable of resolution. Individuals with this much emphasis on the fixed sides of life are characterized by “enduring self-will,” by a determination to “go to the end.” It is not that they won’t change. They won’t let anyone or anything outside of their own will make them change, so they may live for long periods in a state of inner war, in an inner impasse with periodic explosions. But, when the dust clears, the same old impasse is still there. Witnesses may marvel at their unwillingness to compromise, their lack of flexibility and plain “common sense,” despite genuine intelligence.
When we add some of the personal name asteroids to Pat’s chart, we reinforce its basic messages. N Patrick Gene is in 1 Scorpio 17, so P Pluto has held a square to it all of his life. N Georgia is within one degree of Patrick Gene in 0 Scorpio 24. Pat’s P Jupiter has been conjunct his N Moon for years, and it also moved into trines to Patrick Gene and Georgia. P George reached a conjunction with N Georgia earlier this year, fitting Pat’s confrontation with George W. Bush in the presidential primaries. P Patrick Gene and P Georgia have stayed within one degree of each other, and they are now in 24 and 23 Scorpio respectively. P Johanna (a variation on John) is also in 23 Scorpio. Initially, Pat was competing with John McCain as well as George Bush, but his major rival this summer has been John Hegelin. As described in my article on Hegelin, many members of the Reform Party left the hotel where Pat’s followers were meeting and joined forces with Hegelin to form the Reform-Natural Law Coalition. P Georgia and P Johanna are still in orb of Pat’s fixed-sign cross, showing the two men, George and John, participating in the latest version of Pat’s basic power-struggle life!
Character creates destiny. Pat’s battles have included a schism with his first choice of a running mate. He initially picked Lenora Fulani, a black woman with fairly radical views. Earlier in the summer of 2000, The Spotlight sent their readers requests for donations, which included a report on how Fulani could help Pat win. At the Reform Party Long Beach convention in early August, Pat had switched to another black woman for his VP choice. Ezola Foster is a teacher said by Pat to be a lifelong Christian who shares all of his views. She considers it a terrible mistake to take God out of the public schools. Internet rumor has it that Foster is a former member of the John Birch Society, the “parent” organization which spawned many of the modern militias. Foster is also said to be currently being investigated for getting disability on the grounds of mental problems; a charge which she now denies. Fulani has joined the Reform Party members who split with Pat’s group.
When Lieberman was attacked for his emphatic expression of religious beliefs, his defenders pointed out that it is when a particular set of beliefs about God gains political power that our freedom of religion may be threatened. Allah rules in Moslem countries. The strict code of Conservative Judaism would rule in Israel, denying rights to the secular citizens, if the conservatives had control. Pat and Ezola would like to put Christian fundamentalist principles into law, including denying choice and equality to women among other goals. Hinduism used to be a very tolerant religion, but in recent years some of its leaders have become more militant. Shintoism has always been a nationalistic religion. Democratic societies need to avoid the rule of any single dogmatic set of beliefs. We need to find the common ground of a morality which protects the rights of all individuals as long as they respect the rights of others.
Returning to Pat’s chart, what are his chances of winning? When he ran in 1996, his P Ascendant in Washington DC was opposite Saturn, and his P MC squared it. In 2000, he has P Juno and P Sun square P Saturn. At least some of the public will vote for him, with his P Moon trine N Mars on election day, but it is also still just within orb of an octile to his P MC in Washington, and it is trioctile his P East Point. His P south lunar node and P local eighth house cusp are both conjunct his N MC with P Mars opposing them and his P Ascendant and P Albertine quincunx them. The eighth house, like Pluto, Juno, and Scorpio, signifies joint resources, including the tax money Pat hopes to get for the Reform Party. However, that goal will also involve a contest with the Reform-Natural Law Coalition, and the money may be tied up in legal battles too long for it to help anyone’s cause. Oppositions and quincunxes can both point to separations. We use additional information to guess whether Pat might separate from his career goal, the desire to be president, or from his current home and job to actually become president. The media and polls make it pretty obvious that he will not be moving into the White House. P Vesta, our Virgo asteroids, has recently ended an opposition to Pluto, a semisextile to its natal position, and squares to N Patrick Gene. Its octile to P Pallas, our most political asteroid, is not a helpful aspect for political success or for funds, though P Mercury on N Juno could show financial help. N Mercury in Scorpio and Mercury and Juno’s fourth house placements could point to resources coming from the public or from our homeland, an extension of the Moon’s principle. But, I would not advise betting on Pat.
Copyright © 2000 Los Angeles Community Church of Religious Science, Inc.
