16 January 2005 - 4:41pm
Tarot for the Democrats - A Serious Third Party Emerges
With the Democratic National Committee seat up for grabs and the party looking for a direction, I threw a tarot reading on the next four years and alas it is not that good. But as the saying goes, "you lie about the cards and they'll start lying to you."
Ok, so here goes:
The Significator this is what the Tarot reading speaks to: The Knight of Swords. Hasty action. The knight charges, sword drawn. The hothead. Emotionalism. Not thinking things through.
The Democrats are on the run and flailing and will continue in that mode.
Covering Card, this covers him: The Empress. A higher arcana card, again signifying a turn of the wheel of karma. She sits next to the Emperor - in this case the Bush Administration, playing a subordinate role, and not challenging his power or authority let alone the legitimacy of his decisions. Her power comes from his. To oppose him is to undercut herself. She feels as long as she is his mate, she can get something out of it. She does not question the power structure.
The Democrats see themselves as subordinate to the Republicans and will continue in that role.
Crossing Card, behind the scenes - everything has a secret side: The Knight of Wands. Not so secret a side for it is the mirror of the Knight of Swords. Hasty action. Emotionalism. Not thinking things through. Two knights in the center spot of the tarot means this will be fast and big. Jealousy and narrow mindedness are the traditional meanings.
The strategy of not having a strategy. If this had been the tarot for the US invasion of Iraq, I would have said "right."
The Foundation, this is below him on which he stands:The World. Another karmic card of the higher arcana. This is the foundation and this card means completion. It might even mean capitulation - a worrisome thing to progressives, or it may mean a long-term strategy or of retrenchment. More on this at the end.
The Democrats are approaching a watershed.
Behind, this is finished business:The Nine of Pentacles, sometimes meaning an independent woman. The meaning is highly shaded by the Empress who is the dependent woman - even though she has great power. That coupled with the World in the foundation position suggests that the Democrats are going to wholesale split from their roots and become "soft" Republicans - kinder, gentler, Republicans.
The Democrats will abandon their historic vision.
Above, what is hanging in the air: Queen of Cups. The woman of heart. The party leadership may have no strategy of its own, but there are people in the party who do have a vision and they will be coalescing. not now and not even in 2006, but by 2008 the Democratic regulars will be different Issues outside the United States and outside of US hegemony will change the United States and the course the Republicans have taken will not speak to the electorate - but since the Democrats look like kinder, gentler, Republicans, they will not have the clout or vision to set a new agenda.
There will be a shift away from the Democratic party, but not toward Republicans.
In Front, this is right in front. Ace of Wands. New beginnings. This will sound absurd, but there will be a new political party, you heard it here first, folks, and I don't believe my ears, but the cards are saying that. The names may stay the same for a while, but a new sweep akin to FDR and Reagan is brewing and it will not be international issues as much as monetary issues. I see this coming largely out of the Generation X-ers who will be entering the public arena not just as votes, but in positions of power.
Even if the Democrats become "neo-Republicans," the Progressives will walk and form something much more than a splinter party. It may well look like a Ross Perot deal played full volume.
The Outcome, the future: The Seven of Pentacles. Concern for the Harvest. The Ace of Wands, the power left untapped is what the figures leans upon as the crops grow. Once again, the people who are no longer represented by the main political party (parties?) will build their own party (formal or informal) and like in 1992, they will force the rightward looking politicians back toward the center, even as the Democrats shift rightward.
In short, the Democrat leadership will lead to the right and end up looking back over their collective shoulders only to see they are walking off by themselves.
Meaning: This tarot is very unexpected and I had no idea it would take this turn. The leadership of the party is unable to articulate a vision. Too much power would be lost and the interest groups have all the politicians in their pockets and they are running scared.
The electorate has shown it is willing to go, en mass, for a viable third party candidate. If we look to the election on 1912 and 1992, the third party pushed the Democrats into power, but in both cases, for better or worse, the Democrats were distinguishable from their opposition.
If the Chairman of the DNC drives the party rightward or does not have a clear and compelling vision, there will be a power vacuum that a third party, in name or flying the banner of an existing party, will hoist.
Who those leaders are, the tarot does not say, but they will be a decidedly younger and less conservative crowd.
The 2006 election will not go the way the Democrats want, but by 2008 and 2112, the political landscape will be unrecognizable and these two parties may well be as outdated as the Whigs.
Matsu
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Comments
My cheese curds this morning told me that both Bush & Cheney would not live out their term, so who are you going to believe? Perhaps work to help change the situation for the better?
I think working to make things better is what the Third Party has in mind because it isn't just Bush and Cheney - the flow out of Bush Sr. and Reagan and even back to Nixon and his Southern Strategy which was his understanding of how to put the Red states together and on top of that push a national agenda.
Perot misfired, but if we look at the popular vote, we see he was way beyond Nader. Perot has a vision. Nader is a gadfly.
Generation X-ers are not worried about "Gods, guns, and gays." These are issues the affluent can worry about, "luxury problems," as someone once called them.
Someone whose job as a computer help-desk person just went to India or someone whose manufacturing job jest went to China is not going to be worried quite the same way about those issues as someone whose job is safe.
The full impact of the shift in jobs will be linked to demographics. The baby boom, according to the Bureau of the Census ended with those born in 1963. The First Generation X-ers ate officially as old as 42 years old and some would say actually older and the boom probably ended in about 1958.
These Gen X-ers will heading for 50 by 2112 with their own kids coming out of high school and college, and with their own jobs on the line. The boomers will not enjoy the retirements their parents did and they will feel squeezed.
What will happen is that there is going to be a re-articulation of the American Dream. For Gen X-er's the Cold War is something from history books and the reality of a world where the economic locus in in Asia will be much more of a concern.
The Third Party will speak to this. Perot spoke to it against North American Free Trade Association, NAFTA, and while I do not see protectionism making a resurgence, bread and butter issues will drive X-ers toward pocketbook issues.
Interesting reading especially with all the major arcana cards popping up. I wonder if the recent meeting of George Soros and other party fatcats reflects the beginning of some Perot-like splinter within the party.
"The Blog Party" convention is currently being held in virtual space and people are participating. The buzz is growing. Who its candidate will be is hard to say, but it has clout and direction. It doesn't need to have a miltimillion dollar pageant that everyone (more or less, save for the party faithful) tune out.
The days of the balloons falling amid screaming delegates is going the way of smoke filled rooms. Political conventions at one time actually DID select a candidate, just as at one time, very fleetingly, the Electoral College did select the President.
In the 1940's the political convention morphed into a pageant - an anointing as the real politics shifted to the precincts where two or more years ahead of time, the moves were made to get the right kind, and I do mean (far) Right-kind, of candidates to run.
Virtual conventions will not do it all, for blog-power cannot get non-bloggers involved, but if bloggers present a candidate who speaks to the issues that rise out of the meritogracy of blogs, there indeed might be a shift in how political decisions are made and non-bloggers might say -"hey, someone's finally saying what I was already thinking," and it's not in the self-anointed, so-called, mainstream media that is sold to the highest bidder..
In the last election the blog/internet concept was taken out for a spin. It will become progressively more powerful.
The political process of conventions is not even 20th century - it's 19th century, and here we are in the 21st century. No wonder the people who have 19th century machinery can't think in 21st century terms.
If the Democrats were smart, they'd become the internet party. Whoever become the internet party will command a lot of clout and be able to mobilize more political power at less cost per vote than the existing parties.
Look how far and fast we've come in ten years. The next ten. Holy URL, Batman!
Matsu
Hi, Matsu-
I've been reading cards for almost 34 years. Your reading of this throw is very good, but I see one important aspect that you didn't address. I'm wondering if you'll agree with what I see.
The covering card is the Empress, the Foundation is the World which features a Goddess, the Queen of Cups crowns and the future is the Ace of wands. I see the answer coming from women. The Democrats had/have everything they needed to succeed, and they gave it up because they're too comfortable. They'd rather have the money they make from special interests than win. They're afraid of rocking the boat. The Queen is love, positive human emotion, mothering. The Ace is sexual energy, new beginnings, a rebirth that will leave the Democrats counting their money and their losses.
Women are the key to a vital shift toward progressive leadership.
Morgaine-ism© #8
"A Woman's Sexual and Reproductive Autonomy is Sacred and Absolute."
My mother taught me tarot and she was taught by the Gypsies back in the old country. I've been reading tarots since 1959 - as a small fry.
On Daily Kos someone else read these cards and did a good job, except they switched the Significator to the Knight of Cups which changes everything.
I agree on the Empress having the positive characteristics and were the Significator a card such as Ace of Wands or Queen of Cups or the World, the tarot would have been more positive.
For me, the cards have come to mean things to me. There are books out there and even computer programs that do the work of it, but for me, the cards kinda, sorts, "speak" to me and over the years I know what certain combos mean and those two knights together - not good. To me this makes the Queen the wife of the Emperor and hence the high Arcana version of the Queen of Sword. Had it been the High Priestess or the Queen of Wands, I would have seen women taking the helm more.
But a third party does not spell doom. On Daily Kos someone though I was speaking to a splinter party when, in fact, the Democrats that shift rightward will be the splinter party. The bulk of the progressive (The Blue Party) will coalesce.
This is not a dark outcome.
Tarot is whimsy and I truly hope aspects of your interpretation, which I think are valid, also show up as well.
I agree that this is not a dark outcome. I've even been asking if anyone knows whether anti-trust laws can be applied to political parties. I think the Progressives need to leave the Democrats in the dust unless they come back to the Left where they belong.
Morgaine-ism© #8
"A Woman's Sexual and Reproductive Autonomy is Sacred and Absolute."
Anti-Trust Laws applied to political parties. I like it!
The tarot is saying that is the Democrat leaderships swings right, we'll have a one-party system. Large political blocs form when large constituencies go unrepresented. Perot was an example of that.