According to Jonah Goldberg’s book, “Liberal Fascists” Mussolini was very popular among American liberals and progressives in the 1920s.
Goldberg also claims, compared to the other world leaders of the day (Hitler, FDR, Chamberlain, and even Churchill) Mussolini was more intelligent. He basically came up with fascism on his own (and it wasn’t Hitler’s antisemitic version)—that is a nationalistic socialism that allows capitalism.....after seeing WWI’s incredible nationalism.
Mussolini had been a communist before WWI. He saw though the international appeal of class struggle in communism wasn’t enough to unify the people to bring a true popular revolution....but—after seeing the power of national rivalries of WWI—he thought ancient ethnic nationalism would.
I think it’s fair to say that the current democratic socialism found in Europe is really just a kind of “kinder, gentler” fascism, minus the nadir of nationalism....which is seen now as the root of all evils. Even the USA as re-created by FDR, was and is really a kind of fascism—moving towards Mussolini’s ideal of:
“Everything within the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”
Liberals & progressives were, and are, fascists.
