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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 5, 2026

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what are they doing to influence the outcome of the elections?

Aside from all of the recent moves that can conceivably be dismissed as having some other motivation, they penned a 24 page "letter to the American public" in which they explicitly stated that they wanted to influence the midterm elections in favor of the Democrats and that voting for them was what they wanted Americans to do.

I'm not joking, by the way, you can Google this. It's utterly baffling that that's the message they'd write to the dozen or so Americans willing to read a 24 page letter from the Iranian government in full, but it is indeed what they wrote.

Aside from all of the recent moves that can conceivably be dismissed as having some other motivation, they penned a 24 page "letter to the American public" in which they explicitly stated that they wanted to influence the midterm elections in favor of the Democrats and that voting for them was what they wanted Americans to do.

I'm not joking, by the way, you can Google this. It's utterly baffling that that's the message they'd write to the dozen or so Americans willing to read a 24 page letter from the Iranian government in full, but it is indeed what they wrote.

Well you don't seem to deny that as of late there has been growing anti-Israel sentiment in the Democratic party. Nor do you seem to deny that the Iranian leadership is desperate. (Not desperate in the sense of being on the brink of collapse, but desperate in the sense of being extremely squeezed financially.) Those two facts offer a reasonably good explanation for this letter you cite.

I think the problem is that writing that letter is basically guaranteed to backfire -- if competent, the GOP could probably force a Dem opponent to denounce it (and the Iranian regime's human rights record), weakening their anti-war stance/creds. I'd imagine, at least.

I think the problem is that writing that letter is basically guaranteed to backfire

I wouldn't go that far, because you never really know what will happen, but yeah, certainly it may be a Hail Mary play.