I’ve been thinking through the rules and the game doesn’t even have subtext so much as it has text. The players are mostly liberal, but liberal success counts for nothing. Fascist success gets extra powers that even the liberals covet. Fascism has strength that liberals don’t. (One facist is the Great Man.)

I tried to think of what rewards the liberals could get for success, or what else would be thematically appropriate, and the only answer I’ve got is that if the liberals are in power, everyone could literally put their cards on the table and publicize their political affiliation. That’s pretty much how liberal democracies work, and it’s forbidden by the rules. The “secret role” rule makes having a political stance something to hide.

The article notes that the game’s creators have a clever rebuttal - they anticipate objections but straw man them over to “oh, these fuddy-duddies think we shouldn’t say the name Hitler” and offer stickers to hide it. I guess that’s easier than responding to an objection like “the game builds fascism into the rules and presents basic democratic values as weakness”.