Exactly this. As someone who grew up in a rural Missouri town that, in 2020, brought out Confederate flags and mimed lynchings at a 15-person Black Lives Matter protest, I know very well that there are a lot of people in this country that want this kind of stuff. Their entire conception of politics is the wielding of power to hurt those that they think deserve it.
Liberals that grew up in Blue suburbs of coastal cities often are comically unaware of just how unfamiliar they are with huge swaths of the country. While there aren't a crazy huge amount of truly fanatical conservatives, those that do exist are extremely loud and extremely politically active. If they're not opposed, they win.