It is truly another world, with so much wilderness. This difference changes the culture greatly as well, and how people think about land, the earth, and other people.
You can find good people and good places everywhere, but the west really is better in nearly all respects.
Hence the importance of liberty as an axiom of federal governance: one group with particular cultural interests (say, deep urban) should not impose their situation-specific views on others far away with radically different cultural interests (say, rank wilderness). What some may find need to prohibit in one situation, others may find necessary to survival in another. The lack of respect of axiomatic liberty causes dangerous sociopolitical tensions.
Very true. Sadly, the reality of the structure of our government is such that rural areas have a greater representation in our governance than denser more urban areas.
Us rural types find the reverse practically true, even with representation explicitly skewed in our favor: urban centers regularly out-vote us by a long shot.
You can find good people and good places everywhere, but the west really is better in nearly all respects.