“Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the fandango?”

~ Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody (1975)

I’m kind of on a retro-Queen roll the last couple of days.

A scaramouche is defined as “a stock character in commedia dell’arte and farce who is a cowardly braggart, easily beaten and frightened.” The “fandango” is a lively Spanish dance for two people, typically accompanied by castanets or tambourine, not the movie website – Al Gore had not invented the Internet in 1975.

As regards the GOP primaries, our scaramouche is definitely doing the fandango.

Trump’s big win, Kasich’s taking second place and Cruz getting smacked in the progressive Acela Corridor is no real surprise but it should reveal something about Trump’s true agenda and how it is seen in the strongholds of American progressivism. Trump is a populist, not a conservative, Kasich is a “moderate” Republican, one about a quarter of an inch from being a Democrat – Cruz was the strongest conservative choice – and he finished dead last.

The order of finish of the three candidates and the margins by which they are separated indicate a support base skewed toward a sort of Republican progressive populism that might achieve some of the desires of “compassionate conservatives” via progressive means – i.e.bigger government. Kasich finishing in second place with substantial votes tells me this “skew” is real.

It also proves what a minority classical liberalism represents in the GOP. The Democrats are an American communist party, the GOP is the party of progressive populism and both are champions of bigger and bigger government. Trump is already softening his hard-line stances, scaling back his heated rhetoric and signalling a shift toward the same “tax the rich”, pro-abortion, make government great again policies of the Democrats but his supporters are too Twitter blind to see it.

The Donald’s “I’m a conservative – wink wink” schtick plays well with the progressive, upper Northeast Republicans, just as it does with the great unwashed who get all their deepest desires confirmed through Trump’s Twitter length, fake conservative bombast. Those who know him best – his buddies with the anti-conservative New York values – are cool with his fandango across the Bible Belt because unlike the great unwashed who support him, the Nelson Rockefeller Republican Club members know he is just putting on a minstrel show to get the nomination.

No matter if resistance to the TrumpBorg is futile – I’m going to stick with Cruz until the last gavel. With the Cruz candidacy, Republicans can never say that they didn’t have the chance to nominate a real, electable conservative. If Trump does secure the nomination and by some twist of fate, Hillary gets indicted and we are saying “President Trump” after November, there’s going to be a significant amount of buyer’s remorse.

America will have finally answered Freddie Mercury’s quintessential question…Scaramouche will have fandangoed all the way to the Oval Office.

Caveat Emptor.