I think what a lot of these people have is a caracatur of the right as some intense legalistic moralists who spend all their time pouring over cartoons on Fox channel looking for something to be outraged about. Don Wildmon(and pretty much all those on certain FR freep lists) come to mind.
That's precisely correct. They have a strawman that they like to set up and then knock down, but they really have no clue what Conservatives actually think. I have encountered it first hand many times when talking with them. They will assume that I have positions or beliefs that I actually don't have and when you inform them of that, they tend to short circuit and shut down.