OPINION: In 2024 America, not even the exposure of authoritarian ...

With a fireball sunrise illuminating Arlington National Cemetery, I rode the blue line train from Washington, D.C. to Reagan National Airport Friday after spending a few cherished days  with my daughter.

It’s hard to imagine any sentient person passing by Arlington and not being moved by its deep message and vast silence. To stand amid the souls who gave all for their country is not only to be moved to tears and thoughts of one’s own mortality, but also to be reminded of the power of patriotism and the importance of the character of the people we entrust with our nation’s leadership.

Until recent years, it would have been impossible for me to believe that anyone with a scintilla of introspection would refer to those at rest there as suckers and losers.

I was once again reminded that I’m a fan of the D.C. Metro. It is a reminder that you don’t need Mussolini to make the trains run on time.

When the blue line train stopped, morning travelers pulling carry-on bags exited the car and made the short walk into the tidy and well-run airport named after the 40th president of the United States. Ronald Reagan burnished his political legend as the preeminent Cold War conservative who brought down the Soviet Union, but also drove up the federal deficit as he preached about shrinking the federal government. (Historians offer their views of Reagan’s legacy in this article on the Hoover Institution website.)

You don’t hear the gentleman Reagan’s name mentioned much lately. His style is out of step with a time that finds the Republican base responding like professional wrestling fans to the latest lie, insult and threat from the top of their ticket.

It was Reagan’s vice president who we remember with thanks in our family. My daughter Amelia has used a wheelchair to ambulate for nearly two decades. She has benefited from the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which since 1990 has helped ensure the disabled enjoy the rights and protections others take for granted and these days seem only too willing to trample.

It’s fair to say that most citizens don’t often pause to think about the ADA. It was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, whose single term in office generated its share of admirers and detractors. The elder Bush was too conservative for some, not enough of a Federalist firebrand for others.

But not even his greatest critics would imagine him ever stooping so low as to publicly mock a person with a disability or physical impairment.

Of course, Bush was president in the early 1990s. This is 2024.

Despite all our divisions and differences, you might think that the exposure of a presidential campaign’s undeniable links to an authoritarian plan to take over the government and cripple our system of checks and balances would be a disqualifier for the office — or at least enough to sink it with the voters. But, so far, you’d be wrong.

As convention-bound Democrats prepare to strike up their band in Chicago — and with Beyonce and Springsteen on board, what a band that would be — the Trump-Vance MAGA ticket is showing resilience in key battleground states, especially in Nevada. It’s remarkable, but also not all that surprising in this time of political and media tribalism.

The national political press of late has been abuzz over the rising poll numbers of the rejuvenated Democratic ticket just weeks after President Joe Biden’s decision not to run for a second term. But the polls, time-stamped statistical snapshots, are far from comforting for those who believe Donald Trump wants to remake the country in his own image.

Whether you believe the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is an attempt to harvest a crop planted during the Reagan administration or is just carrying out the goals of the billionaire class is immaterial. Now that it has been exposed as a playbook for a rapid remake of America into a land led by an authoritarian strongman who sits above the law, the only real question is whether it is prevented from coming to pass.

The fact Trump pretends to know nothing about it is — surprise — belied by the facts. His effort to distance himself from it has been half-hearted, but he’s easily moved on to more comfortable subjects, such as questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ true racial identity and her running mate Tim Walz’ use of the word “weird.”

From the structure of the federal government to abortion rights, contraception, Social Security, Medicare, child care and public education, big changes are planned for an America that chooses it. 

The entry of an ebullient Harris into the race in July has energized Democrats, as evidenced by last week’s stops in Las Vegas and Reno with Minnesota Gov. Walz. The former high school football coach is a guy so happy to be put in the game and lead the block for Harris that I’m starting to fear for the folks in the front row of those rallies. Their bring-back-the-joy tour is still working to bring down the house.

A full-throated endorsement from Nevada’s powerhouse Culinary Union only added to the sense of reinvigoration at a time Trump was dispatching running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) to spread the gospel of grievance and remind the faithful that they have been failed by Biden.

Set aside partisanship and take a close look at those polls, especially the well-quoted survey gathered by The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. The swing states, which include North Carolina this time, are all within the margin of error with Nevada still jumping for Trump. In other words, too close to call. A recent Pew Research poll breaks down the demographics with its usual depth and rigor.

But too close to call won’t cut it. Not with the GOP threatening to litigate everything from the vice president’s eligibility to the results of an election still weeks away.

It’s admittedly an unscientific observation, but Trump’s lack of energy on the stump is showing. And his stream-of-consciousness grievance routine has become dizzying even for some of his biggest apologists. It’s also clear that Trump’s standard cheap shots, which landed hard in 2016, increasingly play like ugly and outdated lounge comedy in 2024. Talking about your opponent’s skin color and ethnic heritage, really?

If a certain longtime Nevada political observer’s trademark reminder still holds true and “we matter” in November, then that means the state’s Democrats still have plenty of work left to do.

No matter the outcome, the morning after the election the sun will rise once again over Arlington and shine across this imperfect but already great nation.

By then, or soon after, we will have decided what kind of nation we want to wake up in.

John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Readers Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.