Despite what those in the fringe parties are fond of saying, there are very important differences between the Democrat and Republican parties. Since the midterm elections, the division has been highlighted by some stark splits. It’s a trend that some analysts have pointed out during the past decade.

The political parties are increasingly polarized, and that is a development no one of any party should consider an improvement.

In November 2002, CNN’s Bill Schneider made predictions about the closest races in the House. His last two races were Iowa’s second and Maryland’s eighth congressional districts. Both featured incumbent liberal Republicans, Jim Leach and Connie Morella. He summed up the two races in one sentence: “If Reps. Jim Leach and Connie Morella lose, it means liberal Republicans have gone from endangered to extinct.”

Morella lost. Leach won. Of all the Republicans in the House, there is one liberal, who had to fight a tough race but carried a district that tilted to the left. Considering there are more than 200 Republicans in the House, to have one liberal is a small drop in the political bucket.

On the other side, conservative Democrats are just as hard to come by. The most prominent is Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga. A Jan. 9 editorial in the Augusta Chronicle said, “Miller seems to be the last of a dying breed in the South — the conservative Democrat, though some would call him a centrist. The point is, he is able to put partisanship aside to reach out to independents and Republicans to win votes, whether it’s in a general election or in dealing with his Senate colleagues.” Too many congressmen do not follow in his footsteps.

Those that do attempt to espouse an opinion outside of their party’s “status quo” find themselves, ahem, finding religion at some point.

Take Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio and presidential aspirant. When he came to Iowa State on Feb. 19, I read articles that mentioned his record in abortion-related bills — he had sided with Republicans many times, voting more along the lines of anti-abortion advocates than those of abortion rights. “That can’t last long,” I remarked in the Daily office.

Indeed, it was only a week later that Kucinich did an about-face. In the words of The Associated Press Feb. 26: “Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a recent entrant in the presidential race who during his more than three terms in the House has been a solid anti-abortion vote, said Wednesday his thinking has evolved and he firmly supports a woman’s right to choose.”

The AP then reported he dismissed suggestions that his shift was based on presidential politics. Perhaps he had been coming to that conclusion for a while. However, the timing of the whole matter is suspicious at best and a shameless adherence to the party line at worst.

The line with Democrats and abortion reaches all candidates. On April 8, John Kerry, D-Mass., said he would only appoint justices to the Supreme Court that would support Roe v. Wade. The bluntness of his litmus test statement reflected not only his beliefs, but those of the party as a whole, or most of it. No matter what else a candidate for appointment believed, if that candidate does not adhere to a party’s way on a certain topic, that candidate is toast. No opposing views need apply.

Neither party is blameless when it comes to adherence to certain tenets. A conservative Republican, our own Chuck Grassley, found himself trying to quell a squall in mid-February after not wholeheartedly endorsing Bush’s entire tax cut plan.

According to a Feb. 13 Des Moines Register article, Grassley had said earlier in the year that the president’s plan might not be entirely accepted in the Senate, especially the part about eliminating the tax on dividends.

Later, he said he had no doubt it was a good policy. He clarified his position later by explaining that he believed the dividend elimination was the weakest part of the program. “I’m not a turncoat,” he said, after recalling a question from Bush asking if they could work together.

Now that both houses halved Bush’s tax cut proposal, Grassley appears less of a turncoat and more of a realist.

On the other hand, the tax cut bills may actually prove that moderates still have a voice, if only because Congress is so evenly split and everyone else is toeing the party line. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, were cited by cnn.com April 21 as being moderate Republicans who forced GOP Senate leaders to scale back the tax cut request.

But overall, the disappearing center is a perilous position to be in. James Jeffords switched parties in 2001 because he believed he would be increasingly in disagreement with the Republicans on many positions. No other politicians have jumped their political ship since, but that could be because it is only a matter of time, or there is no one left close enough to the center to feel the heat.