Late breaking news: in the wee hours vote this morning (Friday, the 28th), McCain cast the deciding “no” vote that effectively killed the GOP’s healthcare effort for now.
The
following statement
was released after his vote:
"'I've stated time and time again that one of the major
failures of Obamacare was that it was rammed through Congress by Democrats on a
strict-party line basis without a single Republican vote,' McCain said in
a statement. 'We must now return to the correct way of legislating and
send the bill back to committee, hold hearings, receive input from both sides
of aisle, heed the recommendations of nation's governors, and produce a bill
that finally delivers affordable health care for the American people. We must
do the hard work our citizens expect of us and deserve.'"
Rewinding to Tuesday: Senator John McCain did a huge service to
the nation upon his dramatic return to D.C. by rebuking the Senate for putting
partisanship over solving the nation’s problems. I was particularly cheered
when he
reminded the Senate of its role in checking the Executive branch:
“We are an important check on the powers of the Executive.
Our consent is necessary for the President to appoint jurists and powerful
government officials and in many respects to conduct foreign policy. Whether or
not we are of the same party, we are not the President’s subordinates. We are
his equal!”
McCain made good use of his personal
and political capital in this rebuke—he called out the Senate’s impotent
paralysis for what it is: a quest to make partisan political points without having to work with the other
side. It didn’t work with the Democratic-only passage of Obamacare, he reminded
everyone, adding that it isn’t likely to work with his party’s current quest to
replace Obamacare. As many others have
pointed out, the current goal isn’t to solve America’s healthcare problems, but
simply to rack up a “win,” come what may.
Importantly, McCain appealed to the
Senate’s sense of tradition, its mission and basic common sense by suggesting a
return to “regular order,” a messy, but necessary procedure for bringing the entire Senate into legislative
discussions so compromises can be crafted that work for the nation. He put it
like this:
"What have we to lose by trying to work together to find
those solutions? We're not getting much done apart. I don't think any of us
feels very proud of our incapacity. Merely preventing your political opponents
from doing what they want isn't the most inspiring work.”
Diagnosed with brain cancer in the
past week or so, John McCain is experiencing great challenges these days. I
certainly wish him well through all this—and I appreciate his strength and
commitment to the Senate and its integrity. It’s an old saw, but there really
is nothing like a health crisis to focus one’s attention on what’s important,
and McCain certainly seems attuned to that.
Astrologically, the good senator
from Arizona is experiencing some powerful transits and a predictably stressful
configuration that’s worth consideration here—not to make any predictions about
his health (I will gladly defer to doctors on this), but to explore what it all
says about his role in D.C..
The biwheel below sets a noon
chart for Tuesday’s speech (exact time unknown) against his birth chart (time
rated AA by Rodden).
This speech seems to mark an important turning point for McCain, so it’s worth
a look.
Biwheel
#1: (inner wheel) John S. McCain,
August 29, 1936, 6:25 p.m. ST, Colon, Panama; (outer wheel) McCain
Speech, July 25, 2017, 12:00 p.m. DST (no exact time known), Washington, D.C.. Tropical Equal Houses, True Node.
Speech Sun-Mars (Leo) oppose McCain Moon
(Aquarius). What a literal cosmic description for the senator’s actions
that day! Returning to D.C. with a still-fresh surgery scar above one brow to
support his party, but prepared to speak at length about their shortcomings, as
well, McCain displayed great “warrior” qualities (Mars) and leadership (Leo Sun).
He poured out his concerns in a heartfelt and emotional manner (Moon)
which was, to some ears, a bit too reprimanding and revolutionary (Saturn
and Uranus dispose his Aquarius Moon).
Interchart Mutable Grand Square: Speech
Neptune/Chiron (midpoint, Pisces)-McCain Saturn Rx (Pisces) opposes McCain
Sun/Neptune (midpoint, Virgo); this axis squares Speech Venus-McCain Chiron
(Gemini) opposite McCain Jupiter-Speech Saturn (Sagittarius).
Speech Neptune opposes McCain’s
Neptune; this axis squares McCain’s 10th house Jupiter – clearly,
McCain is feeling—both personally and from a career perspective (between his 1st
and 10th houses)—the undertow (Neptune) of D.C. corruption—and is
feeling trapped by it (opposition from 1st house). In fact, his
speech reflected this sentiment clearly: partisan politics has become a trap
that stops the Senate from getting anything done—hence, the “muck” effect
discussed in the last post here. Several analysts pointed out that his speech
was one thing, but his actions in voting to open debate on the GOP healthcare
plan were another, contradictory thing--a discrepancy his final Friday vote reconciled nicely for now.
Interestingly, McCain's natal chart also
features a Jupiter-Neptune square, so his career reputation is also being challenged.
Speech Neptune/Chiron midpoint
(Pisces) conjoins McCain Saturn Rx and opposes McCain Neptune (Virgo).
With his natal, mutable Saturn-Neptune opposition, t-squared his Jupiter,
McCain is no stranger to norm-bending dilemmas that personally victimize him (7th
house Neptune disposes 1st house Saturn). This is probably
where he acquired his reputation for being a “maverick,” not to mention a
survivor who manages to work around difficult situations he finds himself in.
The addition of transiting Neptune/Chiron here imposes a
painful urgency on McCain that lights up his t-square for a new round of
struggle.
His speech, and these mutable
energies (especially Jupiter and Neptune), reflect that he
is seeing the downside to waging an ideological crusade for the sake of
ideology alone. He comes by that “crusade” naturally: Neptune and Jupiter co-rule
McCain’s Pisces ASC. His powerful history in national defense matters
is reflected in the house placements of these points.
Interchart T-Square: Speech Venus (Gemini)
opposes Speech Saturn (Sagittarius); this axis squares McCain’s Venus (Virgo). Obviously,
all of this ties into the larger Grand Square configuration, as well. The outpouring of good wishes and support he
has experienced since announcing his diagnosis is certainly reflected in Venus’s
presence here (his natal Virgo Venus speaks to health issues),
and so is the renewed appreciation he expresses for the privilege of serving in
the Senate (Speech Saturn).
The wide square from Speech
Chiron
to natal Chiron (Pisces-Gemini) reminds us that McCain is experiencing
a late-life Chiron-square-Chiron transit (out of 3° orb for now, but returning there soon and
finishing out the year within orb). Reflecting back on his life and the good
fortune he’s enjoyed is quite natural at this juncture.
Flashing forward to Friday morning’s final
vote: If MSNBC’s 1:40 a.m.
timing for the final vote is accurate, McCain’s Virgo Sun and Neptune
fell over the Vote’s 4th house, opposing Vote Neptune in the 10th.
The same Neptunian force that has undermined McCain’s health allowed him to have
the final say on GOP healthcare efforts.
IMHO, we owe McCain a deep debt of
gratitude for stepping up to this challenge. Again, we wish the good senator well as he begins his cancer treatments.
Mitch’s
quest
A bit of interesting
healthcare-related history is in order. According to Wikipedia, Mitch McConnell was stricken
with polio as a young child, and he
was treated, and probably saved from a lifetime of disability, by the same Warm
Springs in Georgia that helped Franklin Delano Roosevelt treat his polio.
McConnell is quoted as saying his care at the Springs nearly “broke” his family
at the time—an interesting note that makes me wonder why, as Kentucky’s senior
senator, he wouldn’t like to see today’s families spared the trauma of
catastrophic healthcare bills.
Contrary to McCain’s message, Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seems to still be under the illusion that
radical partisanship works. With John McCain casting the deciding no vote, however,
the final vote of McConnell’s Healthcare “Vote-a-Rama”
at 1:40 a.m. Friday morning (7/28) proved that such tribalism certainly is not working for the GOP. As NBC’s Chuck Todd
put it, McCain “saved Senate Republicans from themselves.”
Joining Republican hold-outs Lisa
Murkowski and Susan Collins in voting no, McCain viewed the final bill
presented—the so-called “skinny repeal”—to be a sham designed to pass the
problem back to the House with little serious Senate input. Others who shared
this view with him, such as Lindsey Graham, still voted for the bill; to his
everlasting credit McCain decided to use his vote to call out that nonsense for
what it was.
It’s a shame that McConnell was so
intransigent about the secretive, closed-door, GOP-only process he called for
in pushing this healthcare debacle. As we’ll see, his natal chart reveals a
definite rut-bound streak that has probably served his career well over the
years, but is probably not helping him right now. Only in the past two days
has the full Senate been given a chance to debate healthcare, and from
discussions I’ve seen, they’re not even clear at all times what the various
versions of the bill propose. How could this convoluted mess possibly improve the nation’s healthcare
options?!
I won’t even try to sort through the
tangled web the GOP has woven with all its healthcare-related maneuverings, but
in the end, it seems that McConnell is reaping the harvest of his intransigence
with the failure of the GOP’s healthcare efforts. Let’s examine the chart for
the failed 1:40 a.m. vote next to his natal (noon, no time available) chart.
Biwheel
#2: (inner wheel) Failed Senate
Healthcare Vote, July 28, 2017, 1:40
a.m. DST, Washington, D.C.; (outer wheel) Mitchell McConnell,
February 20, 1942, 12:00 p.m. War Time (noon chart, no time available),
Sheffield, Alabama. Tropical Equal Houses,
True Node.
McConnell Venus-Mercury-Vote MC (Aquarius)
oppose Vote Mars-Sun-Part of Fortune-McConnell Pluto-Part of Fortune-Chiron
(Leo). Cutting across the 9th-3rd house axis of
the Vote chart, this aptly represents a legislative event that was highly-pressurized
for McConnell—he had a lot riding on the success of this effort and the Cosmos
simply wasn’t with him on it. Possible financial implications are also evident in
McConnell’s Venus-Pluto opposition falling afoul of Vote Mars-Sun:
we can only wonder what that means (wealthy campaign donors might ditch him?).
The impact on McConnell’s Chiron
is wide, but as Mars transits over that point
shortly, we may hear more: do we need to worry about Trump taking out his anger
with McConnell on his wife, Elaine Chao, who happens to be Trump’s Secretary of
Transportation? That would be a serious wound to McConnell.
McConnell Mars-Saturn-Uranus (Taurus) fall
over Vote 12th house, square McConnell Sun (Pisces) and separately trine
both Vote Pluto (Capricorn) and McConnell Virgo Neptune. These are two separate trines because McConnell’s Neptune
and Vote Pluto are not trine. This
seems to reflect disconnects between McConnell’s material priorities—the concerns
that have driven his commitment to repealing the ACA. As mentioned earlier,
McConnell has good reason to empathize with families whose members have
pre-existing conditions (like his polio would be today), so his intransigence in
wanting to forge ahead taking healthcare away from people flies in the face of something in his own nature (Sun)
that he seems to have repressed. In worst cases, Polio (a Neptunian epidemic) strips any sort of
control away from its victims (Pisces)—with all his fixed energy, McConnell is
entitled to some deep-seated trauma over that experience.
In keeping with his fixed energies, in
his post-vote comments, McConnell remained adamant about his “Obamacare is a
failed program” mantra—clearly, either he is unable to see the other side of
the story (that the ACA could be fixed with a bipartisan effort) or he’s simply
too caught up in political pressures to bend. One way or another, his entrenched
natal Taurus energies didn’t work for him in the end.
If we were looking at his chart next
to Trump’s, in fact, we would see that McConnell’s very fixed, determined
Taurus stellium squares Trump’s
bullying Leo Mars-Asc. Perhaps this is the pressure that has kept him on
this repeal-and-replace quest, whatever the consequences?
The fact that McConnell’s Taurus
stellium falls over the Vote’s 12th house is significant, too: the
12th house is the Cosmic Waiting Room, where Neptune subverts even the
best-laid plans. Never mind plans that are haphazard and morally-conflicted
like this repeal effort has been. The 12th house also forces one to
consider big existential questions like “how did I get here?” and “do I really
want to be traveling this path?” McConnell will be grappling with these
questions, as he decides whether to get behind bipartisan efforts going forward. This
isn’t going to be easy for him.
Final
thoughts
McConnell is part of the 1940s
cohort born with Saturn-Uranus conjunct in Taurus, and this group may be
vulnerable to the August 21st total eclipse in late Leo, coming soon
to the U.S. Like McConnell, this group also has Chiron in early Leo,
being transited by Mars, so this is a group to watch going forward.
Finally, as we saw with McCain, Neptune
is also the “usual suspect” throwing McConnell into an uncertain
future. I suspect that if White House Tweets begin to fly, attempting to
humiliate and unseat McConnell, his colleagues will rise to his defense, as
they’ve done with Jeff Sessions. Specifically, Neptune is now tracking
with McConnell’s Virgo-Pisces Nodal axis, t-squaring his Gemini Jupiter, and
probably challenging both his ideological leanings and his life of public
service.
From his concession comments after the vote this morning, it sounds
like he was sure the GOP was doing the American public a favor with its healthcare efforts. The outpouring of protests
around the country saying otherwise meant nothing?
This seemingly twisted viewpoint McConnell
promoted was also protested or questioned by the medical industry, physicians,
hospitals, the Congressional Budget Office, and virtually everyone who’s sat
down to crunch the numbers. Unless I simply can’t see things from their side of
the Looking Glass, it seems to me that the GOP has no idea what the American
public wants and needs.
Or—more likely—their whole healthcare effort was a
Neptunian smoke-screen concealing other priorities (i.e., tax cuts for the
wealthy). Given McConnell’s GOP leadership role, some responsibility for that
distortion belongs to him—hence the pressure on his Nodal axis.
There’s a reason we’re hearing
Neptunian analogies
like the “fish stinks from the head” in the news these days: in mid-Pisces,
Neptune is roiling D.C. with mutable madness. The “head” implicated here is
Trump himself, whose Gemini-Sagittarius oppositions are vulnerable to Neptune’s
undermining energies right now. We’re seeing the effects on McConnell, McCain, and
the Senate’s “stinking fish” of a healthcare bill.
And, we’re seeing it with the
Scaramucci-led chaos in the White House this week, which has Neptune’s fishy
fingerprints--distracting and deflecting attention from serious issues like the Russia investigation, not to mention Trump's ridiculous tweets banning transgender Americans from serving in the military--all over it.
I caught a quick conversation that
put a lot of the past week’s White House news into context, although the link
eludes me: in a nutshell, the journalist said that Trump has sold the American
public on the idea that “shamelessness…is fearlessness.” Again, playing with Neptunian
mirrors and distorting reality: if the fish stinks, it stinks!!
What a brutal wake-up call we’re
living through!
Raye
Robertson is a practicing astrologer, writer and former educator. A graduate of
the Faculty of Astrological Studies (U.K.), Raye focuses on mundane,
collective-oriented astrology, with a particular interest in current affairs,
culture and media, the astrology of generations, and public concerns such as
education and health. Several of her articles on these topics have been
featured in The Mountain Astrologer and other publications over the years.
She is
also available to read individual charts—contact her at: robertsonraye@gmail.com.
© Raye Robertson 2017. All
rights reserved.