Complex sentence: For the national Democratic Party, the alignment after Reconstruction resulted in a Southern anchor that was useful for congressional clout, but at the same time inhibited the national party from fulfilling center-left initiatives prior to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Split into simpler sentences: For the national Democratic Party, the alignment after Reconstruction resulted in a Southern anchor that was useful for congressional clout. But, it inhibited the national party from fulfilling center-left initiatives prior to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.