75 years ago, Hotelling showed what happens in a competition between two parties competing along one spectrum. In the long run they both move to the center, keeping just enough distance to be recognizable. Patri Friedman wrote about this two years ago. Voters will always pick the viable party closest to them, regardless of the distance. This explains why an experiment would show that moving a little to the right would help the party gain votes (which is both the motivation for each candidate as well as the reason why politics is a giant mess). It also explains why Freedom Democrats may be garnering attention, we are starting to look more like libertarians than the Neocon party. It also shows, as you alluded to, that making politics a multi-dimensional space (by educating the consumers) is a must step in this fight.