ROGER KIMBALL: Why can’t Democrats speak frankly about Iran?

The only Democrats who seem willing to mention the plight of Iran’s protesters do so in order to compare what’s happening in Tehran to the ongoing anti-Trump brouhaha in Minneapolis – with the inevitable hashtag: “end authoritarianism.” “In Iran, brave protesters confront a far-right theocratic regime,” wrote Ken Martin, the chair (don’t call him man) of the Democratic party, on social media. “Here at home, tens of thousands are marching after the fatal ICE shooting of Renee Good – demanding justice, transparency and an end to an unchecked federal force that takes lives and tears families apart.” In case his moral equivalence wasn’t sufficiently odious the first time, Martin doubled down on Twitter/X: “If comparing the US to Iran makes you angry, ask why. Killing protesters. Crushing dissent. Kidnapping and disappearing legal citizens. Ignoring courts. Threatening critics. That’s authoritarian behavior – anywhere.”

Let’s not waste time explaining to Ken how the situation in Iran and Minnesota are not in any meaningful way similar. A more interesting comparison might be between the revolutionaries of 1970s Iran and the anti-ICE radicals of Minnesota today – two lots of fanatical zealots, hellbent on imposing their warped ideologies on everybody else.

Iran would be better off if they’d all been machine-gunned in the 1970s.