they immediately think of 90's era stereotypes of republicans sitting around a table smoking cigars thinking about how they can ruin the environment and oppress the gays and women.

This is an extremely important part of the equation.

Let me ask everyone a rhetorical question. Have you ever met a leftist who wasn't up to their eyeballs in propaganda, virtually 24 hours a day? Whether it's the "news", Hollywood woke garbage, social media psy ops, etc? I say "rhetorical" because I already know the answer: no. All leftists live in a hyperreality. All of them, without exception. Most of them live in a badly written movie where the left is The Good Guys, but many of the older ones live in a perpetual documentary about the rise of the Nazi party.

Hyperreality is absolutely crucial to the survival of leftism, which is why they're putting almost all of their effort into propaganda. The actual ruling leftist parties themselves barely do anything at all. They rarely pass laws of substance unless they're propaganda-oriented. It's easier to construct a false reality, force people to live in it, then let nature take its course.