Not to cause offense, but I find that, in general, leftists are more likely to speak against "their guy", and conservatives usually support "their guy". Not sure why, but it's just what I've observed through the years.
That's your bias in wanting to believe that people like you are more honest and true to their convictions.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5864729 ... looks like Republicans and Democrats are pretty close in their consistency. Small sample, but usually what you see on most similar issues.
Speaking as a leftie, we haven't had an "our guy" since maybe Carter. If you think Obama is left-wing, I have some nice beachfront property you might be interested in. He talked a good game in 2008, though.
You must not know a lot of Tea Partiers. Though to be fair, they are more "right-wing revolutionaries" than "conservatives" by any reasonable sense of the word.
I wonder how much of it is a lame duck effect: The bottom never fell out of GWB's conservative support until his second term, either, despite much to complain about.
The bureaucracies don't change much between administrations and there is a lot of the same faces at the top between administrations. It causes a permanence of policy regardless of the party. In fact, the bureaucracy are more or less required to be non-partisan in their long term policies. The hypocrisy is probably more of an effect of indoctrination into the bureaucracies than of actual changes in an individual politicians views. It would be difficult for a president to reverse 8+ years of an institution's operations, especially when those have been funded for longer by congress.
Liberals aren't against it, but the most fanatically religious people tend towards conservative candidates, which was what I was (ineffectively) trying to get across.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5864729 ... looks like Republicans and Democrats are pretty close in their consistency. Small sample, but usually what you see on most similar issues.