In 1932, the Democratic Party produced a remarkable platform, perhaps the most libertarian that had been seen since Andrew Jackson. Together with the Depression and Hoover's massive failure to keep from being tarred as the cause of it, it swept the Democrats to power in the White House and both Houses of Congress. It's not quite that dramatic today, but there are cases where you'd have to question whether a politician had even read his party's platform. Any Republican executive from New York. I could go on.
Parties are power-seeking devices.
They'll struggle to win a successful politician into their embrace regardless of his voting record or the things he espouses in his public speeches. This allows them to craft legislative majorities that permit them to govern unopposed. Well said, I couldn't agree more. Archer, of course, was no mere backbencher. Hold on Stuie ma boy, its coming.