Today's realists find it emotionally impossible to take hard positions without claiming those from whom they are withdrawing support are themselves corrupt, showing a sudden interest in the human rights implications of local conscription practices or making wild claims about WW3.

For Bismarck the Balkans ‘weren’t worth the bones of a Pomeranian grenadier’. Kissinger combined realism with empathy - assuring Rhodesian leaders that forcing them to give up their country was a bitter blow, noting Ian Smith made him feel worse by ‘taking it like a gentleman’.

By defintion in a 2 party system you'd expect positions to change to maintain a basically 50/50 split. The demographic changes might still have influenced the underlying policy programmes