They can both be used by one or both parties to secure power - on that axis, they are objectively not orthogonal.
I'm struggling to see how that makes them not orthogonal. Isn't that pretty much the definition?
..I guess you're right. I understood orthogonal a bit too mathematically, and since the 'dot product' of both concepts with election results is non-zero... and concepts cannot have negative dot-products (???)... well, that's where I realized I was holding the analogy wrong.
(Also, whoever down voted you for admitting you were wrong should rethink what they are doing)