Mussolini, the Fascist par excellence, gained power through democratic means and democratic elections (plus intimidation, violence, and marches, of course) - th

Mussolini, the Fascist par excellence, gained power through democratic means and democratic elections (plus intimidation, violence, and marches, of course) - the democratically-elected legislature granted him emergency powers in November 1922, he got the legislature to change the rules for the election to grant a supermajority of seats to the plurality winner in June 1923, and he won not only that plurality but in fact 64% of votes in the elections of April 1924. Only at that point were the more obvious signs of a fake democracy implemented (such as making opposition parties illegal and having someone assassinate the leader of the opposition after he complained about election irregularities), and even so, they retained non-free elections instead of getting rid of them entirely. So I think it's entirely reasonable for "anti-Fascists" to not be placated merely by the fact that an election took place within a nominally-democratic structure, and in particular entirely reasonable for them to be skeptical of a nominally-democratic election where you can gain power through means other than winning the popular vote and where there are irregularities in counting votes.