[tzs]

The problem is that you have a handful of prominent conservative politician who do hold those positions for sexist/racist/etc reasons, and

(1) those politicians have very high approval ratings among conservatives, and

(2) conservatives who approve of those politicians for other reasons and disagree with the sexism/racism/etc of those politicians are largely unwilling to say so.

This understandably gives people the impression that conservatives at large take those positions for the same sexist/racist/etc reasons that those prominent politicians do.

PS: note that I am not saying or implying that most conservatives are sexist/racist/etc. Just that because a handful of prominent, powerful conservative politicians are, and those have used their power and positions to bully other conservatives into not publicly opposing them, people assume the others agree with those prominent, powerful politicians.

[morgtheborg]

Yes, this problem exists on both sides of the aisle. Loud, crazy people who the other side assumes is a stand-in for the entire group or at minimum has the support of everyone else since few are calling them out.

It's a problem.