Gary Kasparov is trying to save us from ourselves. Having grown up with under the soul-crushing thumb of authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union, the legendary chess champion feels compelled to warn America that neither socialism nor Donald Trump are the answers to our current woes.
In a Sunday NY Daily News article, Kasparov had some words of wisdom for his fellow New Yorkers ~ Trump’s vile New York values: How The Donald represents the worst of a great city. Here are a few excerpts ~
(T)the New York values Trump represents are the very worst kind. He exemplifies the seamy side of New York City – the Ponzi schemers and the Brooklyn Bridge sellers, the gangster traders like Bernie Madoff and the celebrity gangsters like John Gotti — not the hard work and sacrifice that built New York and America […]
He stands for fake values and fake value, debt instead of cash, appearance over substance, gold paint instead of the real thing[…]
He may have business experience, but unless the United States plans on going bankrupt, it’s experience we don’t need […]
Trump’s supporters praise him for his bluntness, for “telling it like it is.” It’s true that his language is startlingly vulgar — one of several traits he shares with his mutual admirer, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin — and it’s easy to find this refreshing after years of politically correct jargon from career politicians.
But what is the point of clear phrasing when the thoughts the words represent make no sense at all? What does “telling it like it is” mean when the meaning of “it” changes all the time? […]
Unfocused anger makes people vulnerable to political snake-oil salesmen touting simple solutions and utopian outcomes. It opens the door to the aggressively uninformed authoritarianism of Trump as well as to Bernie Sanders and his siren song of socialism. (I’m sorry, Bernie fans, but I lived it, and the failures of capitalism are still better than the successes of socialism.)
As I’ve noted before, freedom tends to be more precious than life itself to those who’ve been exposed to totalitarian regimes. For them, the contrast between liberty and oppression is still vividly sharp and clear ~
Every day I have reason to thank Ronald Reagan and the generations of Americans who sacrificed and fought for the freedom of those of us trapped behind the Iron Curtain.
Today, 25 years after the fall of the USSR, the American values that won the Cold War are considered nostalgic and corny at best, cruel or imperialistic at worst. The ideals of individual freedom, risk-taking, competition and sacrifice have been supplanted by the fake values of safety, complacency and moral relativism […]
Reagan’s America was a shining beacon to those of us living in the unfree world. He brought down the Soviet Union by refusing to concede an inch to Gorbachev. Trump compares himself to Reagan while expressing his admiration for Putin and the brutality of China’s Communist dictatorship. He would abandon the Middle East and Israel and discard NATO and nuclear non-proliferation, making the world, and America, far less secure. America needs leadership that will restore confidence in its allies and fear in its enemies, not the other way around.
Kasparov is a bit confused on the immigration issue (conservatives aren’t anti-immigrant, we’re anti-third world invasion and anti-Islamic terrorism) – but exactly right on his analysis of Donald Trump. Read the whole piece HERE, and check out his website.
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Related:
Bernie’s latest blather
