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One of the reasons we can’t have nice things, like a functioning democracy, is that too many people insist on making bad faith arguments in advocating for their political views.
If you mischaracterize another person’s position — not because you don’t understand it, but because doing so will make the other person look bad — you don’t have to grapple with their ideas, and you signal to others that they need not either.
We can just lie about what someone is saying, poison the well of productive discourse, and move along.
People on all sides of political debates do this from time to time. But modern American conservatives have the process down to a science.
Support the right of trans folk to use the restroom that corresponds to their gender identity, even if that’s different from the sex they were assigned at birth? You obviously don’t care if grown men expose themselves to little girls, or worse.
Support the rights of LGBTQ folks to be free from discrimination? You obviously want to eviscerate the freedoms of Bible-believing Christians.
