Beautiful and Blessed Obama: What's in a Name?

When fiction writers make this stuff up it's almost too precious to be read as anything other than allegorical satire...but when it happens in real life...well, it's almost too precious to be read as anything other than allegorical satire.

The Washington Times is reporting on a movement within the RNC (Republican National Committee) to smack down anyone in the party who trends Socialist, beginning with President Bush 41. It's unclear, at least to me, if the Wash Ti pushed its tongue squarely into its cheek when it referred to the movement's founders, James Bopp, Jr. and Simon Yue, as the Bopp-Yue vanguard, but does it really matter?

Hundreds of years from now, if there remains a human race and a planet left for us to race upon, what will the myths and metaphors of our time say about humanity's struggle to be free and self-determined? What lessons will our era offer future philosophers and rulers seeking ancient wisdom?

Well, given today's headlines, it seems they will learn that we staged a Gilbert and Sullivan-esque revue complete with the, ahem, thrust and parry, of play actors named Mr. Bopp who was after a certain Mr. Bush. Gone, apparently, are the days of Caesar Augustus and Brutus, names that today indicate profound honor (august) and rapacious cruelty (brutality).

In other words, American Democracy, which for the purposes of this tale I suggest is the Holy Grail of Freedom, a structure by which one can choose who and what one will be, is being sought by questers named Bopp and Yue, and they are seeking to wrest it from a Bush.

Meanwhile, arguably setting out to build upon a tale spun last century by a man named Roosevelt, Dutch for what is essentially a rosie valley, we have a new hero on the American political landscape...Barack Hussein Obama, which according to the Greek Chorus of our age, aka "wiki", means Blessed and Beautiful. He is attended by a man named Rahm Emanuel, which wikis into something along the lines of "God, the merciful and compassionate one, is with us." (And, which, according to the wiki link provided, in some cases, is considered to be the name of the next messiah).

If bards of the future were to pen plays about what we are now experiencing, as Shakespeare did with Julius Caesar, here's what they will have to work with so far:

Plot: a fight of words (as far as we know, these are the only weapons) over what is the best political construct for allowing self-determination, justice, and equality

Characters: James Bopp, Jr., Simon Yue, George W. Bush, Barack Hussein Obama, Rahm Emanuel (and a supporting cast of sundry other thousands)

Scene: Well...is it a rosie valley or not?

Summary: the Bopp-Yue vanguard attack Bush for having aligned himself with what B-Y considers the enemy for openly perverting the rights of the people, a group B-Y calls Socialists. For their part the Socialists do not call themselves Socialists, but in so many words, defenders of the grail (freedom, justice and equality). They largely ignore the attacks of Bopp-Yue, seeing them as cranks with ridiculous names.

Central theme: did the defenders ignore the B-Y vanguard because of their suspicious names that seemed to indicate supressed desires for sex; or did they ignore them because they thought they were riding a predeterminate wave of destiny, as indicated by their own, very much more pleasing names?

Resolution: we've not supplied that yet.

But, here's something to consider: at least in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, it is Brutus, one of the plotters of Caesar's murder, who is remembered by Caesar's man Marc Antony as "the noblest Roman of us all" for his desire to maintain the dignity of Roman rule. Yet, in our common lexicon his name is equated with animal force and even stupidity ("brute force").

In other words, while it's a fair assumption that we're all yearning to live in a blessed, beautiful, happy, rosy, compassionate open land, the names on the sign posts might not always be what they seem. But, at least this time around, I hope they are...I would much prefer that to being bopped in a bush.