I work with a genius who is from the Carolinas ... biiiiiiigggggg country draw to his speech. We travel weekly and meet with CEO's of different healthcare companies all across the USA .... they always underestimate him. I laugh as by the end of the week, they realize he was not just the smartest guy in the room, but by far the smartest guy in the room.
Based on that, I think there is a lack of respect.
What I find interesting is that the big cities like Philly and NYC take pride in being rude, while the small rural towns take pride in being nice and helpful people.
Like I said, I travel all over the country on a weekly basis .... and anyone who does that will come away knowing where the nicer people reside, and it isn't close.
Now, who is respected more and who is nicer are definitely two different things but I would generally say the rural folks have life figured out much better than the city folks. They have consistency to their belief system which the big city folk seem to lack .. a lot of hypocrisy from those folks.
My two cents (I had 4 cents but the government took half of it).