[BroJoeK]

donmeaker in reference to my post #807: "Oddly, fascism is at its essence “Let us hang together or we shall assuredly hand separately.” which sounds a bit like Ben Franklin to me.
"Mussolini used the symbol because it harked back to the Romans..."

Ancient republican Romans used the fasces symbol of strength through numbers.
So did our Founders, for example, note the fasces in this statue of George Washington in New York City:

And here we see the symbol in Congress:

\

These symbols express the original ideals of the American Republic, and have nothing -- zero, zip, nada -- to do with Mussolini's 20th century political fascism, or National Socialism -- a term which better expresses Mussolini's ideals.

So I'll repeat my response to central_va in post #807:

"Calling Lincoln 'fascist' is just as ludicrous as calling, say, George Washington a 'fascist'.
Both loved their country, neither was a 'fascist'."

[donmeaker]

Exactly right.

The idea of people doing good things together is as old as humanity.

The coopting of good symbols to encourage bad goals is as old as bad goals.