Letter: Protest there, not here
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
The letter’s framing treats Trump’s message to Iranian protesters as hypocrisy, as if every street protest is morally interchangeable. That misses what people actually hear in a regime that jails dissidents, censors the press, and shoots citizens for demanding basic rights. Iran is not a flawed democracy having a rough week.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
So President Trump is telling Iranian protesters to “KEEP PROTESTING - Save the names of the killers and abusers ... until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY.” Ironically, he does not apply the same approach
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
The letter’s framing treats Trump’s message to Iranian protesters as hypocrisy, as if every street protest is morally interchangeable. That misses what people actually hear in a regime that jails dissidents, censors the press, and shoots citizens for demanding basic rights.
Iran is not a flawed democracy having a rough week. It is a theocracy that survives by intimidation, and supporting protesters there is a form of national security realism as much as moral clarity. At home, Americans can protest, sue, vote, and organize without fearing a midnight knock. That difference matters when you’re trying to preserve public trust and institutional stability.
Conservatives are not against protest. We are for equal rule of law and against violence, whether it comes from a foreign regime or a domestic mob. The principle is simple: defend liberty abroad without pretending America’s safeguards are the same as Iran’s absence of them.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.