Gaudy Las Vegas was right setting for Democrats’ economic debate

The Las Vegas Strip is a triumph of gaudy excess. From the Mandalay Bay and Luxor casinos on the south end to the Venetian and Trump to the north, the buildings are massive, the dazzling lights and vast marquees are mesmerizing, and the shops inside the casinos are the highest of high-end consumerism. And then, of course, there are the gaming tables where millions of dollars are raked in by wealthy casino owners hour after hour, day after day, year after year from people who probably cannot afford to lose.

It is strange that most of the people wandering the streets and gaping at the scene appear to be middle-class and working-class Americans. These are the people who have been left behind by the modern American economy — an economy in which, as Sen. Bernie Sanders points out in every speech, almost all the new wealth is going into the bank accounts of the country’s richest 1%.

But, perhaps it is not so odd. Las Vegas is one of the few places where a family of modest means can afford a motel room on the edge of the opulence and get a chance to experience the life of the rich and famous, even if it is a caricatured version of the billionaire life that casino owners have manufactured to lure people in.

So, it made sense for Democrats to engage in a debate about the economy in this place, because, while Las Vegas is just a fantasy, the wealth gap in America is cruelly real.