Las Vegas: As a Whole
Las Vegans still liked to think of themselves as pioneers---- although they had long abandoned the single promotional motif of the last frontier.
They had come to the West seeking a better opportunity or a new life, and they had generally thrived on the personal freedoms and plentiful choices that Nevada permitted.
These orientations, along with a preoccupation with growth for tomorrow, shaped the city's distinctive approach to politics.
Las Vegans typified an attitude toward government that grew more widespread that contrasted sharply with the view of other regions.
In the northeastern United States, as economic development became relatively sluggish, people generally looked to government for programs that would conserve past gains, provide economic security, and safeguard equality.
Citizens in Sunbelt cities, on the other hand, did not reject government spending but rather eyed federal funds for different purposes.
During and after the Second World War, the Sunbelt experienced rapid growth largely because of federal investment in new industries, especially those that contributed to national defense.
Consequently, residents of the region expected government not to protect past gains, but rather to accelerate economic growth and enhance opportunities for individuals.
Federal funds represented venture capital for expanding communities.
People in the shipyards, aerospace factories, military installations, and high-technology plants if the West welcomed spending for warfare, but they often frowned upon spending for welfare.
To Las Vegans, inhabitants of a city devoted to chance and speculation, government existed to encourage development rather than minimize social risk.
The community welcomed federal defense spending, but it is simultaneously developed a belief in minimal government.
This attitude seemed natural in light of southern Nevadans' individualistic credo, but it intended to overlook the fact that the success of the community had been predicated on the helping hand of the public sector.
During the 1930s, the town had gained a new lease on life as enormous sums of federal money poured in to fund construction of Hoover Dam and finance New Deal programs.
In the same decade, the state of Nevada provided another form of assistance when it legalized casino gaming.
During the 1940s, Las Vegas benefited once again from federal largesse, this time in the form of military installations and wartime industry, and after the war continued to host an air force base while profiting from being the closest significant town to the Nevada nuclear test site.
Even Las Vegans thrived on the public spending that underwrote postindustrial development in the Sunbelt, however, they developed an outlook on state and local government that encouraged them to overlook certain social needs.