The key component of the original Italian Fascism (before Nazism came along and turned the word into a synonym for "bigotry") was never-ending struggle for the sake of never-ending struggle. And unlike Communism, there was never to be an eschatological resolution ending in a utopia. Mussolini once declared that Fascists were heretics against all utopias, whether in Heaven or on earth.
Another similarity between Roosevelt and Italian Fascism was that both are economically interventionist and jingoistic. In contemporary America, economic interventionism is associated with pacifism and anti-Americanism. Roosevelt was the exact opposite (this is also true of historically Communist states, which were all socially conservative). Roosevelt was chomping at the bit to enter World War I from almost the beginning just as he couldn't wait for America to declare war on Spain sixteen years earlier.
My only complaint about this article is that it fails to note that prohibition had conservative as well as progressive advocates. Traditional American Fundamentalist Protestantism regards the consumption of alcohol as inherently sinful, thus banning alcohol was to them the same as outlawing homosexual acts. Granted that this is a relatively new belief (certainly not found in Halakhah), but to write off prohibitionism as exclusively left-wing is historically and ideologically dishonest.
Interesting points. It’s easy to look back on TR with rose tinted glasses, but he had his dark side too. I wonder how much of that has been whitewashed because of the fame of FDR, and unwillingness to sully the family name.