Merrill Brown, a journalist, educator, business executive and consultant, is currently Founder and CEO of The News Project Inc., which provides technology and services for small to medium sized news organizations. He was founding editor in chief of MSNBC.com, a former reporter and executive at The Washington Post, and from 2012 to 2017 served as founding director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. The views expressed in this commentary belong to the author. View more opinion at CNN.

(CNN) While it may be easy to dismiss a significant number of President Donald Trump's supporters as members of a worshipful cult of celebrity, underneath that storyline is a stark policy reality -- one that's inadequately understood and reported on. In Trump, politically conservative America has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fundamentally alter the direction of the nation.

Merrill Brown

It is an opportunity to abandon the US' commitment to engaging politically and militarily around the world after World War II and alter the relationship between Americans and their government -- one built in the New Deal and solidified since. Meanwhile, the press is too unprepared, under-resourced and distracted by the noise surrounding the White House to grasp the momentousness of this shift.

This opportunity also involves reshaping the judiciary, and abortion rights in particular. This issue is discussed widely among Democratic candidates and somewhat more quietly by mainstream Republicans. When Trump delivered a speech at last month's March for Life, becoming the first US president to do so since the annual event began more than four decades ago, many supporters agreed with his own claims of being the "most pro-life president in American history."

If Trump wins a second term, he will likely have the opportunity to add at least one justice to the Supreme Court. Trump will also continue to appoint conservative judges in the federal court system -- all but guaranteeing the most concerted legal and legislative attack on abortion rights since Roe V. Wade.