The Dictator's Playbook aired its profile of Mussolini last night. The Italian dictator and his fascist ideology was important, we may remember him as a strutting buffoon, but he is the architect of the modern fascist state. Mussolini was not only the first practical fascist dictator, he also was the theoretician who established its architecture as a writer and journalist.

Mussolini, like Hitler, who studied his methods, despised Democracy and what he considered its weakness and indecisiveness. He inherited and mobilized a nation in economic and political turmoil by promising
order and strong leadership. He promised to dismantle the elites, restore the nation's pride, revitalize the economy, and rebuild Italy as the world power it was under the Romans. His program was essentially the same as Hitler's, except there was no element of racial, religious or ethnic bigotry as in Germany--at least, not at first. And like Hitler, Mussolini had fought bravely in the Great War. Come to think of it, Franco was a career military officer, Mao, Castro, Khadaffi, Stalin, Noriega, Kim Il Sung, Saddam Hussein and Idi Amin all had military or paramilitary experience. I guess it must be difficult to carry out a policy of violence if you're a peaceful man.

I suppose that means that since Trump was a draft-dodger, he can't possibly be a fascist.