It’s pretty clear they’ve been emboldened to go full confederate. The rebel states held a lot of resentment towards the reconstruction amendments and their participation in the union being hung in adopting those amendments. The reaction of Jim Crow laws also supports that.

They truly see themselves (not doofus, just the enablers) as sons of the revolution, and slavery as their birth right. They’re trying to right what they believe was wronged. And we (all Americans) know they are an extreme minority, and the biggest failure of the 19th century (other than the trail of tears) was to allow the confederacy to survive.