A party's platform has planks that they stand on. I know when I support the Republican Party they advocate for ending abortion, a strong military, a favorable business environment, less government intrusion into our lives. I see the Democrats as advocating a strong centralized government with a highly regulated environment, higher taxes to support social programs, a government controlled economy rather than a free market based economy, an anti religion bias, social engineering to create their vision for modern society. Within those frameworks you have all kinds of characters saying anything and everything in hopes of getting at the huge river of money flowing through Washington. There's a clear difference between parties and both love the America they envision and to varying degrees despise the America the other party envisions.