After the Fall
Being American in the World We've Made
Book Edition Details
Summary
In a world teetering on the brink of authoritarianism, former White House aide Ben Rhodes embarks on a global odyssey to untangle the intricate web of nationalism strangling democracy. As he retraces America’s footprints across the globe, Rhodes encounters the poisoned resolve of Russian opposition leaders, the extinguished flames of Hong Kong protests, and the volatile pulse of a nation on the edge of democratic collapse. "After the Fall" is a riveting blend of memoir and reportage, unveiling the unfiltered truths behind America’s role in shaping a tumultuous world order. Through candid conversations with visionaries, dissidents, and a new wave of leaders, Rhodes crafts a compelling narrative that challenges us to confront the shadow of our past to reclaim the promise of what America could be—for ourselves and the world at large.
Introduction
In the span of just three decades, the world witnessed one of history's most dramatic reversals. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 seemed to herald the triumph of liberal democracy, yet by 2020, authoritarianism was resurgent across the globe. From Viktor Orban's Hungary to Putin's Russia, from Xi Jinping's China to Trump's America, a new model of governance emerged that combined nationalist fervor with sophisticated manipulation of information and technology. This transformation reveals how the very forces that enabled democracy's initial triumph ultimately accelerated its decline. The story exposes three critical insights: how economic crises create openings for authoritarian exploitation, how technology designed to liberate information became a tool for control and manipulation, and how democratic institutions can be captured and turned against democracy itself. Through intimate portraits of ordinary citizens caught in history's crosscurrents, we see how quickly societies can transform when underlying conditions change. Understanding this historical arc proves essential for anyone seeking to comprehend our current political moment and the choices that lie ahead. The lessons apply not just to distant countries but to any society grappling with inequality, polarization, and the challenge of maintaining democratic governance in an age of rapid technological and social change.
The Democratic Promise Betrayed: Hungary's Authoritarian Turn (1989-2010)
Hungary's transformation from post-Communist beacon to authoritarian state offers a disturbing preview of democracy's vulnerabilities in the twenty-first century. When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, young Viktor Orban stood before 100,000 Hungarians demanding an end to Communist rule. He embodied liberal democratic hopes, charismatic and funded by George Soros, representing the promise of Western integration and prosperity. The initial transition seemed miraculous. Hungary embraced free markets, joined NATO and the European Union, and appeared to have successfully navigated from dictatorship to democracy. Yet beneath the surface, deeper currents were building that would eventually pull the country toward authoritarianism. The rapid privatization of state assets created new inequalities, as former Communist officials and well-connected entrepreneurs accumulated vast wealth while ordinary citizens struggled with economic uncertainty. The 2008 financial crisis proved the crucial turning point, shattering faith in American-led globalization and exposing the corruption that had festered beneath Hungary's democratic facade. Orban's return to power in 2010 marked a decisive shift, as the former liberal democrat now positioned himself as defender of Hungarian identity against foreign influence. His transformation revealed a disturbing truth: democratic institutions could be captured and turned against democracy itself. Orban's playbook became a template for authoritarians worldwide. Win elections through populist appeals that tap into genuine grievances about globalization's failures, then systematically capture the state by packing courts, restricting voting rights, and creating propaganda machines funded by corrupt oligarchs. The genius lay in its gradualism, as one observer noted: "The final takeover does not happen with one spectacular conflagration, but through years of scattered, seemingly insignificant little fires." By the time people recognized the threat, the institutions that might have stopped it had already been neutralized.
Putin's Counterrevolution: Russia's War on Western Order (2000-2020)
Vladimir Putin's rise represented more than just another authoritarian leader emerging from post-Soviet chaos. It marked the beginning of a systematic counterrevolution against the entire post-Cold War order, driven by the humiliation of Russia's collapse in the 1990s when oligarchs looted the country's wealth while ordinary Russians saw their superpower reduced to accepting Western charity. The turning point came with Putin's response to the 2004 Beslan school siege, where Chechen militants killed nearly 200 children. In his speech afterward, Putin articulated a worldview that would define his approach to power: "We demonstrated weakness, and the weak are beaten." This wasn't just about terrorism but about Russia's place in a world order that Putin saw as fundamentally hostile to Russian interests and dignity. Putin's counterrevolution operated on multiple levels simultaneously. Domestically, he perfected "managed democracy," maintaining electoral facades while systematically eliminating genuine opposition through legal harassment, media manipulation, and selective violence. The 2015 murder of Boris Nemtsov, gunned down in the Kremlin's shadow, sent an unmistakable message about challenging the system's price. Internationally, Putin pioneered a new form of warfare that exploited openings in democratic societies themselves. Using social media platforms created by American companies, Russian operatives flooded democratic discourse with disinformation and divisive content designed to turn citizens against their own institutions. The 2016 U.S. election interference represented this strategy's culmination, using America's own technologies and cultural divisions to install a president who would undermine American leadership from within. Putin had achieved something no Soviet leader ever could: turning the United States into a mirror image of his own corrupt, nationalist regime.
China's Techno-Totalitarian Model: From Tiananmen to Global Influence (1989-2020)
While Russia disrupted the Western order through chaos and division, China pursued a more systematic approach to displacing American hegemony. The 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre marked a crucial fork in the road where China's leaders drew the opposite lesson from their Communist neighbors. They concluded that political liberalization was fatal and that the Party's survival depended on maintaining absolute control while embracing capitalist economics. This decision proved transformative over the following three decades. China achieved unprecedented economic growth, lifting hundreds of millions from poverty while building the world's second-largest economy. But this success came with a price: the systematic construction of what scholars call "techno-totalitarianism," a surveillance state using artificial intelligence, facial recognition, and big data to monitor and control its population with unprecedented precision. Xi Jinping's rise in 2013 marked the full flowering of this model. His "Chinese Dream" promised national rejuvenation through technological supremacy, economic dominance, and cultural confidence. Unlike Putin's reactive nationalism, Xi offered a proactive vision of Chinese leadership that didn't require destroying existing institutions, just gradually replacing them with Chinese alternatives. The social credit system became the ultimate expression of this approach, using algorithmic monitoring to shape behavior through rewards and punishments. The implications extend far beyond China's borders through the Belt and Road Initiative, which exports both infrastructure and governance models to dozens of countries. American companies, eager for Chinese market access, increasingly self-censor to avoid offending Beijing. Hollywood films are scrubbed of democratic themes, NBA executives silenced for supporting Hong Kong protesters, and academic institutions accept Chinese funding with implicit restrictions on research and speech. The result is soft totalitarianism that shapes behavior through economic incentives rather than direct coercion, a social credit system applied globally.
America's Democratic Crisis: From Hegemony to Internal Collapse (2001-2020)
The most shocking aspect of democracy's retreat has been its crisis in its supposed homeland. The America that emerged victorious from the Cold War seemed to embody liberal values' inevitable triumph, yet within three decades elected a president who openly admired dictators, attacked democratic institutions, and refused to accept electoral defeat. This transformation was the culmination of choices made across multiple presidencies that gradually hollowed out American democracy from within. The process began with the response to September 11th, which securitized American politics and provided a template for authoritarian leaders worldwide. The Iraq War demonstrated American incompetence and hypocrisy, undermining moral authority while validating Putin's cynical view of international relations. The 2008 financial crisis shattered faith in American-led globalization, creating the same conditions that enabled populist authoritarianism in Hungary and elsewhere. Perhaps most critically, America failed to adapt its democratic institutions to twenty-first-century realities. Unlimited corporate spending flooded the political system with dark money, gerrymandering and voter suppression enabled minority rule, and social media platforms designed to maximize engagement became vectors for disinformation and polarization. The result was a political system increasingly responsive to wealthy donors and extreme voices rather than ordinary citizens. Donald Trump's election represented both symptom and accelerant of these trends. His presidency normalized corruption, weaponized racial grievance, and systematically attacked democratic norms and institutions. Even after his defeat, the damage persisted as millions of Americans no longer trusted elections, democratic institutions, or basic facts about reality. The January 6th Capitol insurrection provided vivid illustration of how quickly democratic societies can descend into violence when shared truth disappears and demagogues exploit cultural divisions for personal gain.
Summary
The collapse of liberal democracy and rise of authoritarianism represents one of our time's defining stories, a cautionary tale about how quickly political systems can transform when underlying conditions change. The central thread running through this history is democratic societies' failure to address dislocations created by rapid technological change, economic inequality, and cultural transformation. When traditional institutions proved inadequate to these challenges, people turned to strongmen promising simple solutions and convenient scapegoats. The lessons prove both sobering and urgent. Democracy requires constant vigilance and renewal, as institutions that seem permanent can erode quickly when they lose public trust and legitimacy. Economic systems that concentrate wealth and power create conditions ripe for authoritarian exploitation, while information environments matter enormously since societies cannot make democratic decisions without shared access to reliable information and common standards of truth. Yet this history also reveals reasons for hope. Authoritarian systems, despite their apparent strength, often contain seeds of their own destruction through corruption, overreach, and the basic human desire for dignity and freedom. The key is learning from past mistakes while time remains to course-correct by reforming democratic institutions to make them more responsive, addressing economic inequality that fuels populist resentment, and creating information systems that serve democratic discourse rather than undermining it. The future remains unwritten, but only if we act on the lessons this history provides.
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By Ben Rhodes
