Kudos to cartoonist River’s OBEY

“Kudos to cartoonist River’s OBEY”, Monterey Herald, not published, submitted Feb. 13, 2022

Kudos to cartoonist River’s “OBEY” editorial cartoon on Feb. 12 in the Monterey Herald. This recognition that “Democrats create a fascist state while ostensibly fighting fascism” is historically accurate. Franklin D. Roosevelt was enamored with Benito Mussolini and his fascist economics, writing, “I am much interested and deeply impressed by what he has accomplished… in restoring Italy.”

FDR sent his close adviser Rexford Guy Tugwell to Fascist Italy. Upon his return, Tugwell praised fascism as “the cleanest, neatest, most efficiently operating piece of social machinery I’ve ever seen.” Other advisers handed out pro-fascist books by Giovanni Gentile to FDR’s early Cabinet. They were heavily influenced and assisted in establishing the National Recovery Administration (NRA) and New Deal, which imitated Mussolini’s centralized planned economy of cartels, monopolies, and price controls.

When Grover Aloysius Whalen, a prominent New York City politician, asked about the meaning of Fascism in 1939, Mussolini replied, “You want to know what fascism is like? It is like your New Deal!”

Your editorial cartoon is spot on.

— Brandon Kelsey, Marina