Steve’s Barking; What side of the political bed did you get up on?

There is an expression in America when a person is grumpy, boy did you get up on the wrong side of the bed.
I’m using the expression what side of the political bed did you get up on as a way to describe the good old U S of A shifting political thinking of persons who hold office.
Now most people believe that President Nixon was this conservative President yet he presented ideas that were to the left of JFK, either because he believed that they were right and or he felt that it would
help him stay in office.
Now I do recall reading that  staunch segregationist George Wallace started out as a progressive but when he first ran for officers he was soundly defeated. Good old George Knew which side his bread was buttered on and became the biggest segregationist of Alabama.
What about  Strom Thurmond, fought hard to keep whites and African Americans apart, but fathered an African American girl, paying her mother child support and taking care to of her. Another fraud  politician  who looked after his career over everything else.
What about the founding fathers from Virginia, almost all talked against slavery, and what an abomination it was, and then when it became evident that slaves were worth more then There plantations their slaves stayed slaves.
Do they become different persons when it becomes expedient? Would most of us become different people when it becomes expedient?