I live in the Midwest, which tends to be much different (it's much like the South, but not quite as bad!), and people here in some of the college town have respect for others, but those working class towns, people can be the real American stereotype. These people are religious, either in a traditional church or are the charasmatic megachurch type, don't have a lot of education, don't know much about the rest of the world.
What's really scary to me is some Tecan people who trust President Bush, just because he's "from Texas".
I seriously blame, in part, the education system in this country, although a lot of these parents tell their kids not to actually believe it when they say that the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, etc.