Thank you, Gerry Kasparov for this outstanding piece! Nothing you said in this article was not a fact. If the Democratic Party wants to start winning again and triumph over Donald Trump and the GOP, they need to reject progressives and leftists like Zohran Mamdani and expel them from the party. Guys like Mamdani belong in the Green Party or the Socialist Party NOT the Democratic Party. Mamdani has many skeletons in his closet for sure. His condemnation of the disgusting and genocidal phrase “globalize the intifada” was far too weak. His policies are a disaster: taxing white people more for their skin color, decriminalizing prostitution, free public transit for everyone, defunding the police, city-run grocery stores, and much more. On the police one, he’s insulting one of the best police departments in the nation and the very working-class people he claims to represent not mention claiming they are racist, homophobic and a major threat to public safety is absurd.
Also, his claims that the police exchange between the U.S. and Israel are sinister when we do the same thing with actual authoritarian regimes like Qatar, the UAE and Jordan is…interesting to say the least. As is calling the New York State Assembly “a bastion of Zionist thought.” He is clearly an antisemite and this isn’t even debatable. His ties to the DSA also need to be more closely scrutinized for sure! The DSA has claimed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was the fault of “U.S. imperialist expansionism” somehow. They praise brutal Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro. They affirmed theocratic Iran’s right to self-defense. Lastly, they called for the release of the man who gunned down two American citizens including a Jewish woman in cold blood.
No, Elizabeth Warren European-style social democracy nor leftism should be the future of the party. Are the Democrats really thrilled about Mamdani privately? I don’t think so. I think they’ve gotten behind him because he’s all they’ve got. But they will regret doing so as this will only compound the many mistakes the Democratic Party has made this year. A red wave is coming in 2026 and 2028 and the Democrats doubling and tripling down on supporting a piece of garbage like Mamdani is Exhibit A as to why. If the Republican Party had a hard-right MAGA candidate in their midst I would expect them to condemn him or her. The Democrats need to do the same. The Democrats need to return to being a center-left party soon or they won’t win another election until the end of time.
So fellow Garry Kasparov readers, how do we convince fence sitters that Mamdani’s association with the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) makes him an extremist? Can we put together some DSA quotes right here in the comment section. Let’s not have “It’s out there, you have to find it yourself. It’s not working. Thank you all!
Champion Kasparov: contrasting your game plan to the Dems frenetic chaos as covered in yesterday’s Free Press’ ‘Big Tent’ article, there’s no question you should be running their show. But answer me this: have you ever won a match when all you had on the field were a few paltry, faulty pawns?
By kowtowing to the antiamerican antisemite nepo baby Mamdani and the DSA the democrats hopefully will get what they truly deserve. Obliteration.
So the choice in your world is between visions of totalitarianism. (I disagree vociferously.) But at least one of those visions actually likes the USA- meaning Americans. So yes, people will vote for the party that doesn't call them garbage, who want to destroy the US, their way of life, and everything they stand for. Go figure.
They were armed with much more than flagpoles. They had tasers, bear spray, and guns waiting just beyond the city limits to bring in when they ziptied all the captives they wanted to grab.
Mr. Kasparov is absolutely right about Mamdani - his radicalism, inexperience, and flirtation with the DSA’s worst instincts is bad news for NYC and a liability for the Democrats in general. But I think Kasparov misreads Trump. Authoritarians always centralize power. Trump tries to disperse it: He defends religious liberty and free speech, reduces the regulatory regime, and promotes federalism by pushing political decisions back to the states and the people. His Supreme Court picks have been models of constitutional jurisprudence. His speech and style may seem autocratic, but his record reflects decentralization, not dictatorship. What Kasparov fought against in the Soviet Union - bureaucratic control and ideological conformity - looks more like today’s progressive establishment than like Trump’s populism.
Kasparov’s closing argument treats MAGA and the DSA as moral equivalents - as if populism on the right and socialism on the left pose the same threat to liberty. That’s where he loses the thread. The DSA openly promotes central planning, class resentment, and hostility to the Western tradition of ordered freedom. Trump’s populism, by contrast, is a democratic correction to bureaucratic excess - loud and imperfect, but fundamentally constitutional. Equating the two blurs the vital distinction between those who seek to concentrate power and those who seek to reduce it. The real danger to democracy isn’t Trumpian-style populism, but Mamdani-style politicians who want all the power in their own hands.
I’ve had the thought that mamdani’s popularity is a direct result of trump… using that same logic. Instead of assessing issues people are just reacting from their ideological fox holes at this point. To all of our detriment
I am so glad I don’t live in New York City any more! Not that someone like him couldn’t get elected elsewhere — and I expect that will happen. I live in a different type of place these days with saner, more centrist neighbors.
Thank you, Gerry Kasparov for this outstanding piece! Nothing you said in this article was not a fact. If the Democratic Party wants to start winning again and triumph over Donald Trump and the GOP, they need to reject progressives and leftists like Zohran Mamdani and expel them from the party. Guys like Mamdani belong in the Green Party or the Socialist Party NOT the Democratic Party. Mamdani has many skeletons in his closet for sure. His condemnation of the disgusting and genocidal phrase “globalize the intifada” was far too weak. His policies are a disaster: taxing white people more for their skin color, decriminalizing prostitution, free public transit for everyone, defunding the police, city-run grocery stores, and much more. On the police one, he’s insulting one of the best police departments in the nation and the very working-class people he claims to represent not mention claiming they are racist, homophobic and a major threat to public safety is absurd.
Also, his claims that the police exchange between the U.S. and Israel are sinister when we do the same thing with actual authoritarian regimes like Qatar, the UAE and Jordan is…interesting to say the least. As is calling the New York State Assembly “a bastion of Zionist thought.” He is clearly an antisemite and this isn’t even debatable. His ties to the DSA also need to be more closely scrutinized for sure! The DSA has claimed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was the fault of “U.S. imperialist expansionism” somehow. They praise brutal Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro. They affirmed theocratic Iran’s right to self-defense. Lastly, they called for the release of the man who gunned down two American citizens including a Jewish woman in cold blood.
No, Elizabeth Warren European-style social democracy nor leftism should be the future of the party. Are the Democrats really thrilled about Mamdani privately? I don’t think so. I think they’ve gotten behind him because he’s all they’ve got. But they will regret doing so as this will only compound the many mistakes the Democratic Party has made this year. A red wave is coming in 2026 and 2028 and the Democrats doubling and tripling down on supporting a piece of garbage like Mamdani is Exhibit A as to why. If the Republican Party had a hard-right MAGA candidate in their midst I would expect them to condemn him or her. The Democrats need to do the same. The Democrats need to return to being a center-left party soon or they won’t win another election until the end of time.
So fellow Garry Kasparov readers, how do we convince fence sitters that Mamdani’s association with the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) makes him an extremist? Can we put together some DSA quotes right here in the comment section. Let’s not have “It’s out there, you have to find it yourself. It’s not working. Thank you all!
Champion Kasparov: contrasting your game plan to the Dems frenetic chaos as covered in yesterday’s Free Press’ ‘Big Tent’ article, there’s no question you should be running their show. But answer me this: have you ever won a match when all you had on the field were a few paltry, faulty pawns?
By kowtowing to the antiamerican antisemite nepo baby Mamdani and the DSA the democrats hopefully will get what they truly deserve. Obliteration.
So the choice in your world is between visions of totalitarianism. (I disagree vociferously.) But at least one of those visions actually likes the USA- meaning Americans. So yes, people will vote for the party that doesn't call them garbage, who want to destroy the US, their way of life, and everything they stand for. Go figure.
They were armed with much more than flagpoles. They had tasers, bear spray, and guns waiting just beyond the city limits to bring in when they ziptied all the captives they wanted to grab.
Mr. Kasparov is absolutely right about Mamdani - his radicalism, inexperience, and flirtation with the DSA’s worst instincts is bad news for NYC and a liability for the Democrats in general. But I think Kasparov misreads Trump. Authoritarians always centralize power. Trump tries to disperse it: He defends religious liberty and free speech, reduces the regulatory regime, and promotes federalism by pushing political decisions back to the states and the people. His Supreme Court picks have been models of constitutional jurisprudence. His speech and style may seem autocratic, but his record reflects decentralization, not dictatorship. What Kasparov fought against in the Soviet Union - bureaucratic control and ideological conformity - looks more like today’s progressive establishment than like Trump’s populism.
Kasparov’s closing argument treats MAGA and the DSA as moral equivalents - as if populism on the right and socialism on the left pose the same threat to liberty. That’s where he loses the thread. The DSA openly promotes central planning, class resentment, and hostility to the Western tradition of ordered freedom. Trump’s populism, by contrast, is a democratic correction to bureaucratic excess - loud and imperfect, but fundamentally constitutional. Equating the two blurs the vital distinction between those who seek to concentrate power and those who seek to reduce it. The real danger to democracy isn’t Trumpian-style populism, but Mamdani-style politicians who want all the power in their own hands.
“Trump’s populism, by contrast, is a democratic correction to bureaucratic excess - loud and imperfect, but fundamentally constitutional.”
Sir, you nailed it. Hear, hear.
Well said!
I’ve had the thought that mamdani’s popularity is a direct result of trump… using that same logic. Instead of assessing issues people are just reacting from their ideological fox holes at this point. To all of our detriment
I am so glad I don’t live in New York City any more! Not that someone like him couldn’t get elected elsewhere — and I expect that will happen. I live in a different type of place these days with saner, more centrist neighbors.