Juliet’s question to Romeo, “What’s in a name?” is intended to be rhetorical because, as she notes, “That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.”

But what does the name Republican convey ?  What on earth does “Republican” even mean in the time of Trump?  Perhaps “Trump Republican” is an oxymoron, given that he and his party are both rife with contradictions and also very far removed from the Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower. Republicans once supported free trade; under Trump, they’re pro-tariff. Republicans once were fiercely anti-communist; under Trump, they’re good buddies with Putin and Xi and Kim Jong-un. And so on….

I suggest it’s time to rename Republican politicians like Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jim Jordan, Marsha Blackburn, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Josh Hawley.  They are no longer Republicans. Instead think of them as “Formerly Known as Republican, or “FKRs.” 

Other FKRs include Mitch McConnell, Lauren Boebert, Mike Johnson, and–of course–the shape-shifting JD Vance.  

I almost forgot Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson and Representative Matt Gaetz, both FKRs of the first order.

You can make your own list of FKRs.

Former President Donald J. Trump is in a special category.  He is certainly a FKR, but because he was once Formerly Known as a Democrat, he’s FKD. And because he also is ‘The Felon Known as Donald,’ also FKD,  one could conclude that the FKR is double-FKD.  

Or that he’s the mother of all FKRs.

A reminder: please don’t read this aloud in the presence of children.

(This piece may remind you of the joke about the Swedish war hero who shot down dozens of Nazi planes during WWII. In a talk to the ladies of the Garden Society of Greenwich, he was telling the audience about shooting down “one fokker after another.”  The hostess interrupted to assure the shocked ladies that Fokker was the name of a German airplane.  To which he responded, “No, ma’am, those fokkers were Messerschmitts.”)