Those are the political party choices in Iran’s upcoming parliamentary elections now that the clerics on the Guardian Council have barred any of the moderates or reformists from running for election.

“We believe that we must run the country based on a religious framework,” said Mohammad Reza Katouzian, one of the candidates [with United Front of Principlists]. “We must return to Islamic values, and they should become the basis for development of the country.”

The supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all matters of state, also openly endorsed the idea of elections in which only the conservatives are permitted to run, saying in a speech last week that moderate forces “were not loyal to the values of the revolution.”

Okay, here’s how Animal Farm these mentally ill people have gotten. The grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini was barred from running.

Khomeini’s grandson, Ali Eshraghi

Obviously, the revolution in Iran got off track pretty fast in the 1980s, but the liberal principles that were originally part of its spirit sorta crept back in to the system in the late ’90s. Well, hoo boy, the backlash on that is complete.

This story is so fucking sad.