Exclusive – Dinesh D’Souza: A Mutual Admiration Society: FDR and the Left’s Romance with Fascism
by DINESH D’SOUZA
BreitBart.com
7 Aug 2017
“Many passages in President Roosevelt’s book could have been written by a National Socialist. One can assume he feels considerable affinity with the National Socialist philosophy.”
–Nazi newspaper Volkischer Beobachter review of FDR’s book Looking Forward
At a time when the left and the media routinely liken President Trump and the Republicans to fascism, it is time to report on a little secret history that has been nicely buried by progressive historiography. Normally history cannot be so easily tucked away, but in this case, the left is so dominant in academia and the media that it has been able to get away with it.
The reason for the concealment project is to cover up the sins of the progressive icon Franklin Roosevelt and of American progressivism more generally. What’s reported here—the left’s early romance with fascism and national socialism—is a major embarrassment for the future prospects of the left. How can the left claim to be the party of “progress” and all things good, true and beautiful when the record shows the left was in bed with Mussolini and, to a lesser extent, Hitler?
In this article, I examine President Franklin Roosevelt’s enthusiasm for Mussolini, which was not unique to him but represented a larger movement of American progressives who looked to Italian fascism as a model for America. Some on the left even looked for leadership to Hitler. And the enthusiasm was reciprocal: both Hitler and Mussolini praised FDR and saw in the progressive New Deal an at least partial realization of the ideals of both fascism and National Socialism. Let’s peek into the windows of this mutual admiration society.
It should be said at the outset that FDR personally had no affection for the Fuhrer. But he did for Mussolini. In a letter to journalist John Lawrence, a Mussolini admirer, FDR confessed, “I don’t mind telling you in confidence that I am keeping in fairly close touch with that admirable Italian gentleman.”
In June 1933, FDR wrote his Italian ambassador Breckinridge Long—another Mussolini admirer—regarding the fascist despot. “There seems no question he is really interested in what we are doing and I am much interested and deeply impressed by what he has accomplished and by his evidenced honest purpose in restoring Italy.”
The Rest…HERE
