[donmeaker]

Oddly, fascism is at its essence “Let us hang together or we shall assuredly hand separately.” which sounds a bit like Ben Franklin to me.

Mussolini used the symbol because it harked back to the Romans. He wanted to ignore the intervening conquest of Italy by Goths, Byzantine Greeks, Crusaders, French, Austro-Hungarians and Arabs (in no particular order).

[BroJoeK]

donmeaker in reference to my post #807: "Oddly, fascism is at its essence “Let us hang together or we shall assuredly hand separately.” which sounds a bit like Ben Franklin to me.
"Mussolini used the symbol because it harked back to the Romans..."

Ancient republican Romans used the fasces symbol of strength through numbers.
So did our Founders, for example, note the fasces in this statue of George Washington in New York City:

And here we see the symbol in Congress:

\

These symbols express the original ideals of the American Republic, and have nothing -- zero, zip, nada -- to do with Mussolini's 20th century political fascism, or National Socialism -- a term which better expresses Mussolini's ideals.

So I'll repeat my response to central_va in post #807:

"Calling Lincoln 'fascist' is just as ludicrous as calling, say, George Washington a 'fascist'.
Both loved their country, neither was a 'fascist'."

[rockrr]

Mussolini was shrewd enough to recognize the value in “pomp & circumstance”. He appropriated or subverted many things to serve as jingoistic symbols - including flags, banners, bunting, and the fasces to instill a sense of national unity.

The unfortunate thing is that he set a precedent that (inappropriately in most cases) gets applied as a stereotype against anyone’s opponents.