“Fascism is like your New Deal”

Monterey Herald, sent in Oct. 8, 2025, not published

I usually find George F. Will’s columns stimulating and insightful. His “Kindred spirits on left, right believe in New Deal” (Oct. 5) sparked with historical passion. But he did leave out a few essential details. For instance, in 1939, Grover A. Whalen, a prominent New York businessman and politician, asked Mussolini, “What was fascism?” The Duce affirmed, “It is like your New Deal!”

Was it? One of FDR’s closest Brain Trust advisers, Rexford Guy Tugwell, traveled to the Soviet Union and Fascist Italy and credited Mussolini’s fascism as “the cleanest, neatest, most efficiently operating piece of social machinery I’ve ever seen. It makes me envious.” At one of FDR’s Cabinet meetings in 1933, Tugwell distributed Giovanni Gentile’s material to every member, and they were asked to study the material. Gentile repeatedly described himself as “the philosopher of Fascism” and was influenced by Karl Marx.

So, George Will’s unanswered conclusion fails to position Mussolini on either the right or the left. Maybe that is best.

Lawrence Samuels, Carmel