Bad Drivers ....Am I in Mexico???

Lets face it, driving on the East Coast is where the best drivers in the US reside. I'd even take a Penn Plate driver over an New Mexican Driver any day. I don't have any photos of the broken down cars, some with half the car bashed in on 4 doughnut wheels, as that I'm too busy just staring at them. Tail gating the semi in front of you is done at a new extreme: here the goal is to be almost touching the tailgate not the polite 4 feet we do in NJ.
Here's a quote from an expert:
 GM Senior Researcher Leonard Evans, author of Traffic Safety and the Driver , a book that has been referred to as the bible of traffic safety research, seems to have little more than opinion to offer on the topic of why drivers adopt a tactic in traffic that is not only dangerous, but also has several tactical disadvantages.

"Why do drivers choose to follow so closely? It seems to me that it becomes largely a driving habit, rather than a reasoned conscious behaviour," Evans writes. "Drivers appear to do many things for their own benefit rather than for any utility benefit." He goes on to suggest that, in some cases, it may be done as criminal behaviour that's indulged in for its own sake.

Evans also suggests that the lack of speed difference between vehicles allows drivers to feel safe. This, and the fact that crashes are rare events and that drivers can get away with tailgating, makes drivers complacent about the danger. "They have learned from repeated experience that it is safe to do so, in the sense that they have been doing it for years without adverse consequences," he writes.  http://www.scienceservingsociety.com/book/

 I have to add my opinion that most people are stupid.

Now consider the statistics that between 11% to 14% of the drivers around you at anyone time are impaired drivers. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/health/la-heb-impaired-driving-20110623,0,800267.story
Here in NM drunk drivers are almost the norm. I know that sounds absurd but that's the only explaination I can find for the driving styles out here.
How do I drive out here? I drive very defensively; I always signal, I follow the speed limit. I leave mucho room between me and the car ahead of me, I make sure tailgators want to pass me by slowing down a little bit ( all they can take is about 30 sec of a 5 mile an hour decrease), I am always ready with another plan that seems safer ( no left turns), I use my GPS, I don't talk on the phone, I don't listen to music, I have a speed watcher to watch speed limits which change suddenly on major highways, and I try to watch 4 or 5 cars ahead.  I plan on making it out of here alive.