Indeed, in his book, Rhodes lays out how Orbán 's right-wing party and today's Republicans utilize similar methods to attract support, from culture wars to the rejection of political correctness to an overt embrace of a right-wing interpretation of Christianity. As Rhodes explains, 'None of this happened because of Donald Trump.' It's just that Trump made it impossible to ignore, especially given the Jan 6 act of ' domestic terrorism,' as the FBI has defined it, and which himself Trump incited.Īs experts on democracy noted in the fall of 2020, the GOP now less resembled an American political party than it does the authoritarian ruling party in Hungary headed by Viktor Orbán. Not just from Donald Trump, but more broadly from today's Republican Party, which, as Rhodes and other experts have documented, have been embracing the autocratic playbook long before Trump slithered down that famous golden escalator to launch his 2016 campaign. In defense of that MSNBC anchor, many people still don't fully grasp the nature of the threat democracy faces today. Everything Rhodes writes, and everything he shared in our Salon Talks conversation, should be seen both a warning and a clarion call to action for those who believe in our republic. Rhodes's book, ' After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made,' is actually not dark. It's just a brutally honest look at where our nation is heading. An MSNBC anchor, who will remain nameless, recently called the new book by Ben Rhodes, who served as Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser, 'dark' in its description of where our nation's democracy finds itself today.

Rhodes after the fall