What Happens When the Ayatollah Falls?
The Political Orphanage
Andrew Heaton
4.9 • 1000 Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2025
⏱️ 88 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If Iran's Islamic Republic collapsed—or got pushed out—who would pick up the pieces?
This week we look at the recent history of Iran, and the coup perpetrated by the CIA and MI6.
To understand Iran's broader political context, and the power players poised to seize leadership.
Linked Bonus Episode: McKinley Dies and the Empire is Born
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On Substack:
https://www.thepoliticalorphanage.com/p/assassins-part-iv-mckinley-dies-and?r=1moac&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the political orphanage, a home for plucky misfits and problem solvers. |
| 0:16.8 | I'm your host, Andrew Heaton. |
| 0:22.1 | Last June, the United States dropped a huge bomb on Iran in what looked like for a perilous three days, the beginning of a full-scale war. |
| 0:33.4 | Fortunately, matters did not further accelerate, and so far as I know, we are not presently at war with Iran. |
| 0:40.6 | In the build-up to that military action, President Trump publicly flirted with the idea of regime change. |
| 0:48.0 | In all of the neocons who despised Trump, momentarily warmed up to him and made their cases for why this time, this time, |
| 0:58.9 | we would in fact be welcomed as liberators. |
| 1:02.3 | Just a quick battle in Tehran, toppled the cursed Ayatollah, and be on our merry way. |
| 1:09.7 | As the smoke rose from that bunker buster, the question an American foreign policy |
| 1:14.6 | circles was, should America say, great, we were just concerned with nukes, mission |
| 1:21.3 | accomplished, we're leaving, or while we're here, we might as well toppled the Iranian regime. |
| 1:31.1 | Should we, in fact, make Iran great again? |
| 1:35.5 | The immediacy of that question seems to have subsided for now. |
| 1:40.8 | But I have a sinking suspicion it will come up again, |
| 1:43.6 | because either the United States |
| 1:45.9 | and allies precipitate it through external pressure at some point in the future, or potentially |
| 1:51.4 | it will be precipitated through a variety of domestic reasons in which the Iranian regime |
| 1:56.6 | collapses from within. If and when the Ayatollah falls, or we push him, there's an immediate, looming, rather |
| 2:07.8 | sticky question. |
| 2:09.7 | Who then steps up? |
| 2:12.8 | Who would be the new government of Iran? |
| 2:16.6 | And how would that government be selected and legitimated? |
... |
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