The American Crisis of Democracy

Every political system has its strengths and weaknesses, and in the US at the moment we are seeing democracy at its worst. I’ve often thought that the system of ‘checks and balances’ that the founders of the US set up has a paranoid element that can make the country ungovernable at times. Like now.

The US political system was set up as a reaction to the British monarchical system, which was unelected. So concerned were the founders that the President did not turn into a dictator, that every move he makes has to get through 2 Houses of Congress, and the elections every 2 years often mean that one or both Houses are controlled by the political opposition.

You certainly won’t easily get a dictator under this system, at least not for very long. But the price is decision-making, particularly at times of crisis, like the present need to raise the debt ceiling and cut government spending/increase its revenues. I don’t think it’s politically biased to say that the main fault lies with what Vince Cable (the outspoken UK Business Secretary) called ‘nutters’ in the Republican Party, who will not countenance any rise in taxes for wealthy individuals or large corporations.

The Chinese must be scratching their heads. Under their system, the decisions would have been made a long time ago, and there would be no crisis, either politically or probably financially. Even in Blighty, our government is at least allowed to govern for the period in which it is elected.

The American crisis is dominating the world news. It affects all of us. A default by the US would send the fragile world economy into a tailspin.

Uranus and Pluto still have another week of moving towards an exact square. They will get to within one degree, and then back off, and then next year will make the exact square. Crisis, brought about by the need for deep structural change, is typical and expected of this combination of planets.

I don’t think it is just a financial crisis, which we are also seeing in Europe – a crisis we keep patching up, but which will inevitably come back in even bigger form with Spain and Italy threatening to default.

I think what we are seeing in the US is a crisis of Democracy. It is the political system itself that has brought the US to this pass. Republicans or Democrats, allowed to govern, would have different solutions, which one might or might not agree with, but at least there would be some sort of solution, via a reduction in government spending.

And I think the US has this political crisis because their form of Democracy is extreme. Like I said, it has a paranoid element that denies power to the person who has the power. (Kennedy used to bemoan that Khrushchev had far more power to govern than he did!) America needs to let the governing party/person actually rule, and then deal with the consequences. Otherwise it will never grow up as a country. You see it in teenagers, who are rebelling against/afraid of adult power, and yet vulnerable to charismatic leaders.

And you see it in the strange relationship of the US to British royalty. On the recent tour by Prince William and his Missus, all the top Hollywood celebs, who would normally themselves be the stars of the party, came out to meet them. And one star was cravenly saying that the US only has celebs, whereas Prince William is the real thing! You don’t know where to start in unpicking that!

So I think this financial crisis in the US is essentially, as everyone knows, a political crisis. But I think this political crisis has deep roots that go back to its founding. It’s like Dad treated you badly, so all authority is bad and to be mistrusted and must be legislated against. (This is Sun square to Saturn in the US Chart.) And yes, leaders will mess up and become corrupt, and one of the strengths of democracy is that at least you can throw them out every 4 or 5 years. But while they are in power, they need to be entrusted with power, and this is what America finds so difficult. It adds to the conservatism of the nation. And it paradoxically creates another kind of tyranny, where a few extremists in Congress can hold the country to ransom.

Will the US default? The administration clearly thinks it might happen, or it wouldn’t be rolling out Timothy Geithner and Hillary Clinton to say there won’t be a default. As John Pilger says, don’t believe anything until it is officially denied.

The MC is at the top of a chart, and for a country it is expressive of the institutions of government. And the Sun is the leader. The US is currently coming out of Pluto square to the MC, while Uranus is still opposing it. And in the coming few years Pluto will oppose, and Uranus square, the Sun at 13 Cancer. So this political crisis has a few years to run.

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This suggests to me that we are not going to see agreement on a budget and a raising of the debt ceiling that will see the US through to the end of 2012, which is what the administration is seeking. This would amount to stability for the next 18 months, and the astrology suggests anything but stability: it suggests ongoing crisis, that will peak for the next 4 years as Uranus and Pluto undergo a series of exact squares.

For now, we will probably see a raise in the debt ceiling for a limited period, but no budget agreement. There will not be immediate default, but the world economy will not get the stability it needs to build a recovery.

In the 1970s Pluto and Uranus also hard aspected the US MC and Sun, and what we had was Watergate, a major and lasting crisis of government. If anything, this crisis will be deeper, because Uranus and Pluto are operating in tandem, whereas in the 1970s they were some years apart.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the US does eventually default, and for basically political reasons. Deep change is coming to its politics, and there would be little motive for change unless there had been consequences, such as a default.

Europe is under the same politico-economic pressures. We are patching up the countries that are threatening to default, but the debts are so big that there is little realistic prospect of them being paid. The deal with Greece amounted to a default, because as far as I could understand it amounted to creating favourable repayment terms over an extended period, and some debts being written off. This doesn’t mean the Greece problem has gone away, and Italy and Spain, which are much bigger economies, are looming in the background.

The Uranus-Pluto square affects the EU and all the major European countries. So as in the case of the US, the sense of crisis will continue for the next 4 years. I think that the Euro, whose creation was driven by politics, and not thought through properly, will unravel. It seems unavoidable for the sake of the economic survival of the wealthier EU countries. If not this year, then next year or the year after. And if the Euro unravels, the EU itself could unravel. If you were Greece, and you got kicked out of the Euro, national pride, apart from anything else, would insist you left the EU.

On 5th August, Uranus and Pluto will begin to separate, and the sense of crisis we are now experiencing may well start to lift, both in Europe and the US. But it will be back, and it will be more intense, and will remain so until something gives, some radical step is taken. In the case of the EU, it may involve leaving Spain or Italy to its fate. In the US, the debt ceiling may continue to rise until the default is actual, rather than temporary and politically driven. Whatever it is, it will result in a lot of soul-searching on both continents in the coming years. The financial crisis is turning into political crisis in both Europe and the US.