This is the key, and it really is just that simple.

Their hateful and ignorant ideals simply don’t have enough support to win with any significant voter turnout.

They therefore have exactly two options - to modify their positions to appeal to more people, or to hold to their positions and try to manipulate and corrupt the system so that they can win in spite of the fact that a clear majority rightly find them to be noxious. And they’ve blatantly chosen the latter.