With Tehran fomenting conflict from Yemen to the Levant, many American policymakers hope that an Iranian democratic revolution will increase Middle Eastern stability.

California Rep. Tom McClintock, who is a Republican, recently told the Organization of the Iranian American Communities that America should provide “every ounce of moral and material support that the Iranian opposition needs to rid their nation of this fascist, Islamic dictatorship.” A bipartisan House majority even co-sponsored a resolution endorsing Iranians’ “struggle to establish a democratic, secular, and non-nuclear republic of Iran.”