The Ayatollahs' Election Gamble

Austin Bay on Aug 12, 2026

In the last four months, several powerful actors have emerged on the U.S. political landscape. Their agendas could affect the November U.S. midterm elections and undermine America's war on Iran's terror regime.

Most notable, and undeniable, is the Islamist-Communist-Socialist Bund (ICSB).

ICSB stalwarts worship Hamas, the Palestinian terror cult. Hamas, acting with Tehran's knowledge and backing, planned and executed the unforgivable Oct. 7 massacres. Hamas thugs beheaded babies. Their wanted a mega-atrocity -- headlines that guaranteed an ugly urban war. Yet American ICSB cultists deny Hamas' murders.

They deny Hamas was following orders. Hamas is an Iranian proxy. For decades, Iran has supplied Hamas' killers with money, weapons and diplomatic cover. Ayatollah Iran is committed to the destruction of Israel and the defeat of America. So its premier proxies -- Hamas, Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis -- wage war on both.

Yet the most stridently inhuman members of the Democratic Socialists of America stage pro-Hamas demonstrations, demand Israel's destruction and -- with rhetorical heat -- call for Donald Trump's removal.

Immediately, DSA media operatives quickly assure us the speaker meant radical Democrats taking control of the House. We mean impeach Trump. Political removal!

But Trump has faced repeated assassination attempts. Iran openly targets Trump for assassination. After the recent NATO summit, President Trump faced what the Secret Service and CIA regarded as a credible assassination threat likely directed by Iran.

Tehran says Trump ordered the January 2020 killing of Iranian terror mastermind Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani was responsible for the deaths of several hundred U.S. military personnel in attacks throughout the Middle East.

Trump sticks in the throat of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps fanatics. He is the only U.S. president in the last 47 years to directly counter Ayatollah Iran's terrorist and criminal regime and attack its nuclear weapons program. Trump understands that fanatic ayatollahs and their loyalist killers are like classic mobsters. They understand one thing only: violent threats directly targeting them.

So -- target Trump. And behold, pro-ayatollah political actors dot the landscape. Consider Hasan Piker an "internet personality" with an estimated 2 million followers. Piker has said America deserved 9/11 -- yes, deserved a mass murder attack by fanatic Islamic terrorists. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) says this personality is a major influence in the Democratic Party. Piker hangs out with Michigan's new Democrat senatorial candidate, Abdul El-Sayed.

How did Piker gain notoriety? How did he gain a fortune somewhere between $2 and $8 million? These are fair questions to ask.

Do we confront bought and paid for propagandists and political operatives? For at least 30 years, Iran has tried to support left-wing and Islamist academic toffs in the U.S. and Europe. Now it appears the academies have produced a bumper crop of pro-Tehran political warriors, what I call the ICSB.

Communist China plays a similar game, buying propagandists and politicians with the goal of weakening U.S. will.

IRGC fanatics have reason to believe the U.S. lacks spine -- the will to persist. President Jimmy Carter let Iran's shah fall because he felt guilty about the CIA. Cold War-era Russian propaganda and leftist media in the U.S. and Europe amplified the guilt trip. The Obama administration practiced appeasement with cash. Once upon a time, President Barack Obama vowed to halt Iran's nuclear weapons quest; instead, he gave the ayatollahs billions.

The end of August marks the fifth anniversary of the Biden administration's Afghanistan bugout. That fiasco convinced IRGC fanatics America can't even handle a withdrawal, much less a tough fight -- at least an America led by leftist Democrats.

I wrote this in June: Tehran's remnant nut fanatic regime bets "bold lies, complemented and amplified by the Western media's addiction to histrionic headlines and U.S. 2026 election turmoil, will buy it time. Buy it time to see if it can cling to power in Iran and maintain its Hezbollah, Hamas and Houthi proxy forces."

Tehran believes regime change in Washington will allow the ayatollahs and their terrorist cults to survive ... and then get a nuclear weapon.

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To find out more about Austin Bay and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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