3:29 PM PST -- Senator Cornyn just tweeted out a clarification on his Mussolini quote, agreeing with a Texas-based reporter who speculated he appeared to be "warning us against an overly powerful central government." Cornyn replied, "You nailed it, Bud. 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."

Texas Senator John Cornyn quoted fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in a bizarre tweet that seems to scream anti-democracy ... which he has yet to delete.

Cornyn posted the tweet early Sunday, with a translated quote Mussolini delivered in 1929 roughly saying ... "We were the first to assert that the more complicated the forms assumed by civilization, the more restricted the freedom of the individual must become."

It's unclear why Senator Cornyn tweeted this, or what the context might be here. He followed this up by retweeting posts that were pro-ICE and anti-Nicolas Maduro ... Venezuela's own embattled dictator. As of this writing, Cornyn has not deleted the tweet.

In case you're unfamiliar with history, Mussolini was one of Hitler's allies during WWII ... and he eventually scrapped democracy in Italy while he ruled as Prime Minister.