Some 4,500 yeas ago a Chinese emperor encouraged the first attempts to read tea leaves. According to archeologists, he was probably preceded by earlier shamans who worked with the cracks produced on animal scapulars by the heat of cooking. That procedure seems to have gone out of fashion, but tea-leaf reading is still with us today.

Brew your tea with tea leaves just as they come from the plant — large and floppy. Pour your hot tea from a teapot that allows them to fall naturally into your cup. When you have drunk your tea slosh the leaves around and pour off the tea. You are ready to “read”. The mess in your cup will resemble Rorschach blots. To the expert, the patterns nearest the rim of the cup are predictions of the near future, those deeper down relate to progressively more distant times. Louis XIV and his roistering crowd added a French elaboration to the ritual — throwing the used cups into the fireplace afterward. (“Tasse-tossing” to snobbish English speakers who want to show off their knowledge of other languages, tasse being the French word for cup.)

I am herewith going out on a limb and predicting a resurgence of the popularity of tasseography among today’s Republican politicians, now that the difference between the near and far future has been more clearly illuminated by yesterday’s voting. Clearly, near-term fidelity to Sir Orange has been rewarded among the elder generation of spineless wonders in the Senate and in red states with large populations of farmers, the dissed undereducated, the never-satisfied income-tax dodging retirees, and the climate change deniers. Senators who survived this round have been assured of six more years of a perk-filled life in Washington where they are treated with old-fashioned southern deference in restaurants (well, most restaurants) and other public venues. This assurance, coupled with the promises of cushy corporate directorships awaiting them on retirement, may well be enough to keep them in Trump’s ring-kissing line.

But the long-term prospects are not so favorable. The surge of women and young insurgents qualifying for Congress and governorships and local positions all over the map may be the first sign that Trump was an aberrant signal that will now be reversed as the nation comes to its senses and recovers from its deep-seated frustration at the failure of the rich to concern themselves with the poor. If that should prove to be the case, fidelity to the Tweeter-in-Chief could prove fatal to the long-term ambitions of those who so recently believed themselves on the gravy train of lifetime employment on the public payroll by echoing his every inanity and joining the know-nothing chants of his flag-draped supporters.

And choosing now is necessary, while the eventual outcome is still in doubt. Choosing wrong could smash those dreams, as regrettable quotations surface in future electoral campaigns. It will require delicate and statesmanlike editing of all public utterances for the next two years, something the current batch of sycophants have not shown themselves to be good at so far.

All that aside, the election results have been encouraging to those who had faith that you can’t fool all the people all the time. Eventually voters will begin to ask embarrassing questions and peer under suspicious tent flaps and demand explanations — of how tax cuts for the wealthy are going to help them pay their mortgages and how condemning them to the threat of medically caused bankruptcy is going to improve the readiness of the nation to face the problems of a hamburger-flipping and waiting-on-tables future. When Toto-Hannity pulls aside the curtain and reveals the Wonderful Orange-Haired Wizard adjusting the volume sliders on his Fox mixing board certain questions are going to become increasingly difficult to field. If that is going to be the direction of the future, now is the time for career hopefuls to start thinking about preparing their foxholes. Get ready for a lot of “on the one hand and on the other hand”s in Congress, although not much follow-up action.

Let us hope the tea leaves are in our favor. I would happily sacrifice a few Meissen cups with good old Louis if I thought it would help.