They like to believe that farmers are stupid hicks who are so brainwashed by religion and conformity that they will kill any reasonable and right thinking progressive they meet.

In "Travels with Charley" by Steinbeck he wrote about how some nice white people fixed his car when in the south, he then went on to describe them as somehow rather retarded. The truth was that the garage that fixed his car was owned by a black family who employed and trained white guys in the art of car repair, and they didn't charge him a cent.