ASTROGATE ’88 — And a Gemini called Trump

How would you react if the President of the United States publicly admitted he’d been guiding his political decisions with Astrology?

More specifically, how would you react if President Trump tweeted that his personal Astrologer had been scheduling the most auspicious dates and times for White House appointments, functions, and his signings of important documents…and had even prepared Vladimir Putin’s natal chart?

What would you think? (Besides “You’d better find yourself a better Astrologer, dude.”)

Chances are, if you’re a Democrat, you’d probably be amused, appalled, maybe downright disgusted — maybe even a combination of all three reactions.

If you’re a Republican, though, you’d probably be totally cool with his use of Astrology — even if you didn’t know the difference between the Lunar Progressions to Venus and the Void-of-course Moon. That’s because you’re a Republican, and Donald Trump is a Republican, too. So whatever your fellow Republican does and says is A-OK with you.

And please, don’t tell me you’re a stranger to the ol’ GOP go-along-get-along, gentle readers. You know what I’m talking about, don’t deny it.

If a poodle were a Republican candidate running against a Democrat in a Senate race, Republicans would vote for the poodle. They wouldn’t say, “OMG! Look what we’ve done! We’ve just voted for a poodle.” No, they’d say, “Whew! That was a close one! We almost had a Democrat in the Senate. Thank God we have Senator Fifi now on Capitol Hill.”

Hello, GOP Double Standard. Bye, bye, common sense.

Nowadays, people keep harping about how partisan, how tribal, American politics have gotten. Truth is, politics were always this partisan, this tribal, for Republican voters. Republican voters have traditionally (and almost exclusively) voted for Republicans. Not for Democrats. Not for Independents, either. Republicans vote Republicans into office and keep them in office — any office — forever and ever. That’s the way it’s always been.

Furthermore, Republicans also provide more excuses, rationalizations, p.r. fluff, and spins to protect and defend other Republicans than any Democrats, Independents, or Whigs ever could for their own respective political party members. Case in point: “Astrogate,’88.”

Remember that little turd in the punchbowl from the Reagan Administration? Hardly anyone does some three decades later. But back then, when America learned First Lady Nancy Reagan was using Astrology to schedule dates and times of various White House functions (along with other stuff she wouldn’t reveal), it WAS Breaking News. Thanks to some effective tried-and-true GOP strategies, however, what might have become a humiliating and devastating scandal got downgraded to non-eventful. In this case, Republicans got to choose between feigning ignorance and celebrating the snafu.

STRATEGY #1: NO COMMENT.
Astrologer? What Astrologer? Republicans simply ignored the revelations and acted as though Nancy’s stargazing had never happened.

STRATEGY #2: EMBRACE THE EMBARRASSING SURPRISE.
Haven’t we all read our horoscopes at one time or another? Republicans acted as though using astrology the way Mrs. Reagan did was perfectly normal — even admirable. Suddenly, people went from “What’s your sign?” to proudly proclaiming, “Hi, I’m a Capricorn.”

Suddenly, Nancy Reagan and her personal Astrologer Joan Quigley were credited for putting Astrology into the mainstream as a respected and effective tool for modern living. Thanks to some hip GOP spin doctors who circled their wagons around fellow Republicans Nancy and Ronnie, The First Couple emerged from this mini-scandal as visionaries, not California quirks. And more Americans than ever before openly embraced the zodiac as part of the new zeitgeist.

Crisis averted because Republicans remained loyal — most of them, anyway.

FYI, as an odd footnote to Astrogate, it should be noted that the “traitor” who blew the whistle on Nancy Reagan’s New Age soothsaying was also (gasp!) a Republican! But a disgruntled one. Definitely not a team player. When Donald Regan “left his position” as White House Chief of Staff in 1988, he retaliated by revealing the First Lady’s dependence on Astrology.

Of course, in her autobiography My Turn, Mrs. Reagan asserted, “No political decisions were ever based on Astrology.” Not really true. Besides relying on the stars for scheduling, she often had Quigley draw up natal charts for foreign dignitaries and world leaders with whom she and her husband would be interacting. It was even rumored that she didn’t get along with Raisa Gorbachev because she didn’t know her birthday, and so, couldn’t have her natal chart done. And so Nancy was uncomfortable with her because she didn’t know where Raisa “was coming from,” Astrologically speaking. (FYI, Raisa was a Capricorn, born on January 5, 1932.)

So despite Nancy Reagan’s denials, her husband’s daily schedule and his slated activities and itinerary certainly WERE based on Astrology.

So what, exactly, did Astrologer Joan Quigley do for President Reagan? Quigley merely consulted an ephemeris, or Astrological Almanac, that gave the times and positions of the ever-changing Moon. Because Reagan’s Sun sign was Aquarius, the best times for him every month occurred when the Moon was in Aquarius. Because Leo was the sign that opposed Aquarius the worst times for him each month occurred when the Moon was in Leo. So Quigley gave First Lady Nancy the specific times and dates for these lunar positions. That way, Nancy could make sure her husband would attend big events, give important speeches, hold significant meetings when the Moon was in Aquarius. And when the Moon was in Leo, she’d make sure Ronnie would rest and lie low.

Pretty basic Astrology that anyone with an ephemeris could do, in other words. In her book Secrets from a Stargazers Notebook, Astrologer Debbie Kempton-Smith refers to this kind of lunar awareness as RED LIGHTS, GREEN LIGHTS.

For Nancy Reagan then, it seemed no accident that John Hinckley Jr.’s assassination attempt on March 30, 1981, took place during her husband’s GREEN LIGHTS period. It happened when the Moon was in Aquarius, at the time of the month when he was at his strongest — physically, emotionally, mentally, psychologically, physiologically.

And that’s why, she believed, he had survived Hinkley’s gunfire…

But what, you might wonder, does this Astrological stroll down memory lane really mean. So what if she aligned her husband’s schedule with the lunar calendar. So what if Astrology gave this poor woman some comfort, some peace of mind after her husband came so close to dying. So she consulted an Astrologer. What’s wrong with that?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing…only because First Lady Nancy Reagan and her husband Ronald Reagan were Republicans, NOT DEMOCRATS.

And that’s my point. Can you imagine how the vast majority of Republicans would have reacted if Nancy and Ronnie had been Democrats?

Can you imagine what the GOP machine would have generated if Astrology had been used to schedule any White House event during the Carter or Clinton or Obama Administration? I can. I can almost hear the uproar now:

Now we KNOW the terrorists have won!
The Anti-Christ really is in The White House!
Lock her up! Lock her up!
Government isn’t just broken, it’s downright wacky!

Yeah, I’ve heard it all before. So have you. Same old refrains. Same old talking points. Same old Double Standard. Whatever Republicans do or say is A-OK, but when Democrats do or say the same thing the end is near. The sky is falling, the Earth is spinning off its axis, Armageddon is close at hand.

Just once, I’d like to see Republicans drop this distorted obsession with GOP loyalty and start assessing others based on the things they do and say — not on their political affiliations.