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As for Italian fascism, it is perverse to call it anti-clerical. In fact, Mussolini greatly empowered the Catholic Church, required religious education in the schools, and granted enhanced autonomy to the Holy See.

Mussolini, who started out as a socialist, certainly was anti-clerical and anti-religious in his early thinking. He later learned, as other dictators did, that he could use religion for his own ends, and did so.

I wouldn't say that fascism as such was anti-clerical or anti-religious -- Tiso, the Slovakian fascist leader, was himself a priest -- but I don't think Kagan was wholly off the mark in noting the anti-religious aspects of Nazism and Italian fascism.

I wouldn't argue with the rest of Ledeen's presentation. There's a populist trend in the world today that doesn't have very much in common with the fascism of the interwar years.

[dfwgator]

Tiso, the Slovakian fascist leader, was himself a priest

Then there was Croatia's Ante Pavelic.