Is not America the West's very West, from the East Coast across the continent, "Western" even in its latest, pervasive piety--diversity? For diversity-preachment, in spite of all its excesses, is a recognition that this continent hosts--except for a tiny remnant of "Native" Americans--an immigrant population, who themselves, or through their recent ancestors, "chose" America, came "on purpose". Their roots are not the anchors of sessile continuity of descent, but the concepts of modern thought. For to take root in this country is to grasp certain ideas, certain "moral principles", as Lincoln termed them, primarily those set out in the Declaration of Independence. In this article, the author enumerates reasons to "the" question of this essay: "Why the West?" (Contains 1 footnote.)