To them, it’s worth a little suffering as long as the “other team” doesn’t get a win.

It’s not that it’s worth suffering. It’s that it must be done despite any suffering. There’s the lovely saying that a MAGAt will gleefully eat a shit sandwich if they think a liberal will have to smell their breath. They see a win as only possible if liberals are somehow losing. Even if both sides would benefit, even if their side would benefit more from some action, they must not let liberals have a “win”. It’s a psychotic depth to their zero sum game.