Beto O'Rourke isn't exactly the man from Hope. That was another politician from another time. But he is the Democrat many within his party are investing their hopes and political dreams in. After all, if he can come close to victory in the red state of Texas, just imagine what a man from the middle running on the Democratic side of the fence might do in a presidential run.

So we were surprised and more than a little perplexed to see that O'Rourke's first big public action following the midterm elections was to weld himself to one of the leading progressives of his party. This week, he joined with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in signing a letter aimed for the desk of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis over the issue of troops on the border.

We are not of the mind that having troops on the border is, in itself, a problem. After all, most recent presidents have deployed troops there for one reason or another, and in any case, protecting the borders of the United States seems like a legitimate thing for the Defense Department to be involved in. But we agree that O'Rourke raised legitimate concerns during his Senate campaign about the public message being sent with such deployments. He was a right to push against "paranoia and fear and anxiety."

Our question revolves around what O'Rourke could be up to now.

He is currently the hottest thing going in Democratic presidential circles. He is being compared to Barack Obama circa 2006. And even many of those who are skeptical that the El Paso Democrat can parlay a losing Senate campaign into a winning presidential campaign will say Beto will be on anyone's short list for vice president or a Cabinet position.

All of this talk is a parlor game, of course, until there is a campaign underway where one candidate or another starts winning primaries. But it matters which direction O'Rourke now takes his political career.

The soon-to-be former congressman is at a significant crossroads. He surged in Texas by presenting himself — at least in the tone of his campaign — as a man of the middle, a candidate who would seek first to agree on basic principles and then unite others around solutions. His road trip with Republican U.S. Rep. Will Hurd from San Antonio to Washington, D.C., was touted as his way of expressing that he'd work within a spirit of bipartisanship. In this age of divisiveness, that spirit was refreshing enough to bring O'Rourke within 3 percentage points of unseating a powerful Republican senator.

If he departs from that part of his Senate campaign, he will lose the very elements of his candidacy that brought him crossover voters. If O'Rourke turns to the progressive wing of his party, he may win new friends within his party, but he will also erode any chance he has of becoming a unifying figure. So why, beyond serving his border district for a few more weeks, is Beto signing on with Warren?

Those in the middle will want to know.

What's your view?

Got an opinion about this issue? Send a letter to the editor, and you just might get published.