By james art Hawthorne calls itself America’s Patriotic Home, and it’s easy to see why.
From Veterans Memorial Park with its huge Stars and Stripes fluttering in the breeze, to the annual Armed Forces Day celebration and its E Street Munitions Museum, those who serve and support our military can count on a warm welcome at Mineral County town.
You don’t have to drive the entire length of Nevada to be reminded of its proud history and active role in the nation’s defense. With military bases and ranges from North Las Vegas to Fallon, aiming in almost any direction will provide ample proof. The Silver State can boast an excuse for answering the call of duty.
In the changing state of Nevada, our more than 200,000 veterans—about 10 percent of the adult population, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs—are an important, if not always sufficiently discussed, constituency. As the 2024 presidential campaign heads into its final week, the more than 20 million Americans who have sworn to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution are clearly on the minds of Democrats following recent revelations published in Atlantica magazine and New York Times presenting former President Donald Trump as a candidate for Mussolini.
Retired four-star Gen. John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, told reporters he thinks Trump fits the definition of a fascist. Kelly went further, recalling that Trump once said, “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” and at one point offered, “You know, Hitler did some good things, too.”
During the public unrest following the death of George Floyd, Trump was furious with the protesters and asked his Defense Secretary Mark Esper: “Why can’t you just shoot them, shoot them in the legs or something?”
Trump denied making such comments and, predictably, called the people he once praised very low and liars. And we already know that millions of his supporters, many of whom believe his candidacy is divinely inspired, will hardly even care that he has been repeating fascist rhetoric and showing his admiration for authoritarian dictators for years.
But some people sworn to protect the Constitution care. They are among 750 military veterans and noncommissioned officers from America’s National Security Leaders who are speaking out about the dangers of a second Trump presidency. The group of Republicans, Democrats and independents recently endorsed the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris, but has recently been venturing further into the field with surrogates that send a troubling message.
Although Trump’s allies have written off the long, long list of seasoned and reliable people as political theater by the Harris campaign, after listening to two members of the group address reporters, I have to wonder if their well-reasoned message could have an impact in the next days of the campaign — especially for the veterans.
If Trump is such a strong leader and a tough guy on the international stage, you’d think these would be some of the people in his corner. Quite the opposite. They stepped up and spoke out – many for the first time in their apolitical careers – to express deep concern about a man who was fomenting an insurgency and trying to disrupt a peaceful transfer of power.
Retired Brig. Gen. Steven Anderson, a lifelong Republican, brought his sharp words to the discussion, reminding Zoom listeners that he spent his 31-year career not knowing the political party affiliation of his fellow soldiers because the oath to The Constitution has always come first.
“It’s a tough conversation for me,” Anderson began. “As a lifelong Republican who always supported the Republican Party until Donald Trump came along, it pains me to see what has happened to the party. I’m a soldier too… and we were raised in the military where we were taught to be agnostic about politics. We support the civilian leadership of the army. In 31 years in the military, I never found out if my boss was Republican, Democrat, or whatever. I didn’t know, I didn’t care.”
Anderson took seriously Trump’s threat to use unchecked power to call in the National Guard and even the U.S. troops to crack down on what he described as the “enemy from within,” including members of Congress who oppose him. He reminded listeners that Trump’s call for loyalty tests to put him above the constitution was more than troubling. And besides, “a man could not qualify to be in the military with 34 felony convictions. How can we have a commander-in-chief in charge of an army he could not join?’
As an aide to Kelly in the Trump White House, retired Army Reserve Colonel Kevin Carroll gained his own insight into the chief of staff’s character.
“As service members, we all took an oath to country, not to anyone’s political party,” Carroll said. “In my opinion, as a veteran, it is up to us to put personal politics aside and protect our Constitution from the ravages of a second Donald Trump presidency.” As someone who worked alongside John Kelly, I know that he is talking about this now only because he sees this as a major threat to our democracy and our country.
You don’t have to have served to be sickened by Trump’s rhetoric. But perhaps, as Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told CNN recently, Trump’s alarmist behavior and rhetoric really are “kind of baked into the polls at this point.”
Cynics like Sununu may be right. But if admiration for the fascist style has become acceptable and electable in a nation whose military has fought the dark scourge for so long, then those cynics will soon be proven right.
John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family roots in Nevada date back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Readers Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.