Speaking of Jonah Goldberg, I’d like to put this question to the group: Is the following article an honest examination, or a subtle foray into the territory of Liberal Fascism:

When Fasces Aren’t Fascist
The strange history of America’s federal buildings
By Eugene Kontorovich

A selected excerpt:

So when fasces started popping up on major federal buildings in Washington, D.C., in the 1920s and 1930s, no politically aware citizen could have been ignorant of the connotation. American architects knew of Mussolini’s grandiose building projects, and some publicly lauded them. Cass Gilbert, who designed the Supreme Court building, met Mussolini on a 1927 visit to Italy to procure marble for the project. No doubt Gilbert saw the countless fasces in Italian architecture. He was also favorably impressed by Il Duce himself. The man chiefly responsible for the Department of Justice’s sculptural features, C. Paul Jennewein, studied for three years at the American Academy in Rome. While there, he apparently developed a fondness for fasces: he also put them on the Arlington Memorial Bridge, completed in 1932. The Philadelphia firm overseeing the construction of the Department of Justice building (finished in 1935) brought over a young artist from Italy, Roger Morigi, to do some of the sculptural work. The choice of Morigi was itself unexceptional. Italian craftsmen were much in vogue for federal building projects—they had more experience and better training than American architects, as well as a certain cultural cachet. But given the prominence of the fasces in Mussolini’s propaganda, Morigi must have been aware that he wasn’t simply using ancient iconography.

The architects working on the federal buildings of the 1930s were also extremely conscious of the political symbolism they employed. They often looked to the socialist realism of Europe for inspiration. The Federal Trade Commission building, for instance, completed in 1938, is adorned with socialist-realist reliefs of brawny workers engaged in various industries.

Today, it might seem improbable that American government projects would decorate themselves with symbols of European fascism, whatever the enthusiasms of architects. But at the time, Mussolini was widely admired by Americans for getting Italy back on its feet. “I’m pretty high on that bird,” humorist Will Rogers said of Il Duce after visiting Italy and interviewing Mussolini. “Dictator form of government is the greatest form of government—that is, if you have the right dictator.” The rise of fascism appeared to pose no direct threat to U.S. interests, and many saw it as a counterweight to scarier European movements. It was Bolshevism without the collectivization; Nazism without the racism.

I ask this because Goldberg devoted the first chapter of Liberal Fascism to an examination of what he felt was the relationship between American liberals and Mussolini. So I put the question to the group and ask for replies.