Boss Hogg was a corrupt politician and a main character. I don’t remember much beyond that. But my memory is that the Duke Boys were escaping persecution from local state actors.
Side note: I was a little kid and my friends in pre-school thought the car could fly, which broke my brain when I couldn’t articulate that it jumped.
The show started out as a spinoff of a movie about moonshine runners. Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco were both the authorities and the bad guys of the show. Interestingly the sheriff of a neighboring county was played by a black actor and portrayed as a serious and competent / not-corrupt lawman in contrast to the Hazzard Co corrupt officials.
And Enos was the dimwitted gullible but honest deputy in Hazzard.