Springtime for Mussolini

Per Atrios, who recently posted about neoconservative leader Michael Ledeen's reputed fondness for fascism ...

I dug the following out of Ledeen's archives at National Review. It's a bit of Newspeak/projection in which he accuses the Gore contingent with incipient fascism during the Florida debacle:

Fascism in Florida

Not the admiring tone, especially when it comes to Mussolini:

Worse still, the leftists still don't understand what fascism was all about, because they think that Hitler was the paradigm. Actually, it was Mussolini, who came to power more than a decade before Hitler, and who was widely admired, even in the Western democracies. Mussolini did indeed seize power, first in the streets and then in Rome, but they took to the streets in response to years of violent demonstration by the Left. Many moderate people, first in Italy and then in Germany, welcomed the anti-Leftist mobs because they hoped it would teach the Left that street fighting was no way to conduct the nation's business. Mussolini knew all about this sort of thing, having been a leader of the Socialist Party before the Great War.

Also worth reading, of course, is the piece Atrios links to:

Flirting With Fascism

It contains some important information, if accurate, particularly Ledeen's writings about fascism. His admiration for fascist ideas is fairly self-evident.

However, it's important to consider the source in this case. American Conservative is Pat Buchanan's magazine, and he has proven over the years all too willing to publish distortions and falsehoods. Let's put it this way: Buchanan is not in any position to throw stones at anyone when it comes to admiring fascists.