The Bernie Sanders campaign sent information to voters that included propaganda imagery from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party.
A man pictured in the Sanders campaign leaflet sent to Nevada voters by mail ahead of the state’s Feb. 22 Democratic caucuses wears a black shirt with white lettering saying, “SI SI SI” (translating to “YES YES YES”), and a white face under his tan suit jacket. The image is a recreation of propaganda that pictured a large Mussolini stone face on the facade of the National Fascist Party headquarters in Rome, the Palazzo Braschi.
Similar shirts and clothing with the image of Mussolini’s head sell online for around $20.
Mussolini, who was a socialist before founding Italy’s fascist party, became prime minister of Italy in 1922, and in 1925, made Italy a fascist state and himself the leader, “Il Duce.” In the Italian fascist state, there was no free press, the influence of the courts were reduced, and political opponents were imprisoned. Adolf Hitler modeled his fascist takeover of Germany on Mussolini’s ascent, and the two were allies in World War II.
The “SI SI SI” facade was propaganda for the 1934 election, in which electors could only vote “yes” or “no” on a list of candidates created by Mussolini. Critics of Mussolini made fun of Mussolini’s ominous face by calling him “Testa di Morto,” translating to “Death’s Head,” and he was removed from power in 1943 following weakened positioned in the war and bombing of Rome by Allied forces.
Critics of Sanders, a Vermont senator, who calls himself a “democratic socialist,” have warned that his radical ideas could lead to a disastrous situation similar to the failed Italian state, though Mussolini was expelled from the socialist party in 1914.
“Since so-called Democratic Socialists have forgotten or never learned the lessons of history, and how their ideology is incompatible with freedom, I guess we have to remind or teach them,” Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn tweeted last year, explaining why he tweeted a quote from Mussolini.
“I do see quite a few Benito Mussolinis in the Democratic field,” a Republican National Committee spokesperson said last year.
Sanders has pushed back on concerns that his democratic socialist label could harm his chances in the general election and down-ballot centrist Democrats if he is the nominee.
“Our agenda is precisely the agenda that the overwhelming majority of the American people want,” Sanders said on CNN’s State of the Union earlier this month.
He also pushed back on inaccurate descriptions of his ideology.
“Obviously, I am not a communist,” Sanders said on Fox News Sunday earlier this month while responding to President Trump calling him a communist, adding that Trump is a “pathological liar” and “maybe he doesn’t” know the difference between a socialist and a communist.
Sanders’s efforts to distance himself from brutal regimes, however, could be undermined by his Nevada operation distributing an image with the Mussolini propaganda.
The Sanders campaign did not respond to request for comment about the Mussolini shirt.
