Federal Election Commission, along with Republican congressional redistricting efforts and schemes “requiring certain forms of identification to register” to vote, come straight from Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban’s nationalist playbook of “Us versus Them politics.” As for the unfortunate souls who find themselves opposing Rhodes in various legislative battles or ideological debates, he describes dealing with such people as akin to debating those who insist that “two plus two equals five” or, to cite a parable offered by a Chinese dissident regarding that country’s ruling Communist Party, who point at a deer and tell you it’s a horse. According to Barack Obama’s deputy national-security adviser for strategic communications, the presidency of Donald Trump amounted to “an American experiment with fascism.” Contemplating a life beyond the maddening vicissitudes of politics, Rhodes abandons such an irresponsible notion when he realizes that, but for him, the deluge: “Perhaps this was how fascists got away with it through history.” The Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Ultimately, Rhodes writes personally and powerfully about finding hope in the belief that looking squarely at where America has gone wrong can make clear how essential it is to fight for what America is supposed to be, for our own country and the entire world.How comforting it must be to see the world as does Ben Rhodes: Everyone who disagrees with him is either a fascist, an idiot, or both. The characters and issues that Rhodes illuminates paint a picture that shows us where we are today-from Barack Obama to a rising generation of international leaders from the authoritarian playbook endangering democracy to the flood of disinformation enabling authoritarianism.

Along the way, he discusses the growing authoritarianism of Vladimir Putin, and his aggression towards Ukraine, with the foremost opposition leader in Russia, who was subsequently poisoned and imprisoned he profiled Hong Kong protesters who saw their movement snuffed out by China under Xi Jinping and America itself reached the precipice of losing democracy before giving itself a fragile second chance. He visited dozens of countries, meeting with politicians and activists confronting the same nationalism and authoritarianism that are tearing America apart. “Vital reading for Americans and people anywhere who seek to understand what is happening ‘after the fall’ of the global system created by the United States” ( New York Journal of Books), from the former White House aide, close confidant to President Barack Obama, and author of The World as It IsĪt a time when democracy in the United States is endangered as never before, Ben Rhodes spent years traveling the world to understand why.

After the fall rhodes