From shopkeepers to restaurant waiters, one and all seemed to deplore the ukases of mullahs and basijis and kleptocrats. Yet they have ultimately allowed the likes of Khamenei, Rafsanjani, Khatami and Ahmadinejad to endure. While the pretend electorate let successive pretend governments persist in their mutual masquerade, the barely hidden deep state has dug ever deeper foundations of power.
