Hightower book
Jim Hightower’s Book

Back in 1997, Jim Hightower informed us that "There’s Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos", but recent events show us that those tending toward "the middle" are treated quite differently by the two major political parties.

Voters go to the polls today in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. With just two days to go before the election, Republican Dede Scozzafava stunned her party:

An intensely watched Congressional race here that has become a battleground over the future of the Republican Party took another surprising turn on Sunday, when the Republican candidate — who ended her campaign a day earlier — announced that she was endorsing the Democrat.

/snip/

“She basically put aside any pretensions and threw in with the Democrats,” said Dick Armey, the former Republican House leader, who was among an ever-growing group of conservative leaders opposed to Ms. Scozzafava’s place on the Republican ticket. Those leaders embraced Douglas L. Hoffman, the candidate on the Conservative Party line.

What were Ms. Scozzafava’s sins that led to the Republicans flocking to Hoffman? The New York Times article continues:

Ms. Scozzafava had been under siege from conservative leaders because she supports gay rights and abortion rights and was considered too liberal on various fiscal issues.

In the Republican Party, then, a candidate who moves away from the party line, toward views that actually are more popular in the general population, is shunned in favor of an extremist third party candidate. Wingnuts such as Sarah Palin and Dick Armey led the charge in condemning such heresy.

Contrast that treatment with the situation back in early August, when it was first revealed that those who are pushing hardest for a public option in health care reform were running ads attacking Blue Dog Democrats in Congress who oppose it. As Jane Hamsher and Greg Sargent reported, Rahm Emanuel called liberal groups together and cursed at them for daring to attack those who would block the public option. Here’s Sargent:

Sources at the meeting tell me that Emanuel really teed off on the Dem-versus-Dem attacks, calling them “f–king stupid.” This was a direct attack on some of the attendees in the room, who are running ads against Dems right now.

There are several differences I want to note here in how dissenters within the two parties are handled. As I stated above, Scozzafava actually was taking positions that put her closer to majority opinions, but because those positions clash with cherished positions of the extreme portions of the party, she was quickly drummed out of the party. In contrast, the Blue Dogs, in attempting to block the public option, are moving away from majority opinion and toward the form of corporatism more in line with Republican policy. In order to protect the Blue Dogs, then, Rahm is siding with Republicans and going against majority opinion.

I think Hightower’s admonition so many years ago applies equally well in this case. Let those Blue Dogs stay out there in what they perceive to be "the middle" [but which is quite a bit to the right of public opinion] and become the proverbial road kill with a yellow stripe down their backs. If the Blue Dogs want to side with the Republicans, let them join with a party that has been thoroughly trashed in the last two elections and has a favorable opinion level now at 36%. I’ll join with the majority and stick with the principles that favor the well-being of people over the well-being of corporations.