Can you point out how the ayatollahs are not politically conservative? They certainly aren’t liberal, communist, or socialist like Saddam was.
It seems to me that you are advocating that a dictatorship is good, when you like some of the positions of the dictator. The Ayatollahs are not elected, and yet they run the country. (with some input from elected officials)
Of course there is also the part about believing that Israel should not exist, and stoning people, and hanging homosexuals, and whipping victims of rape. Do you believe that Sharia law and conservatism are similar?
1) Iran’s economy is state controlled. There hardly is a country with less economic freedom (North Korea maybe). The only really running big businesses are run by corrupt “islamic funds and endowments”. In other words by kleptocratic mullahs. Their economic model is a mixture of bazaarism, kleptocracy and fascist corporatism.
2) Their “islamic socialism” is also regime price-controls and rationing (Gas rationing, food rationing).
3) Mullah “family values”, include forced marriage and rape of minor girls and notorious pederasty in the islamic seminars. Also there is the concept of “zire” (time wedding) where young women are married for a period of time (sometimes a day or less) to a john. This is mullah run prostitution. You can have that “social value” if you want.
4) The ideology of Khomeinism calls for (and carries out) the violent spreading of the islamic revolution in all islamic countries. You obviously need to check in how many murders and terrorist attacks the mullahs have been involved. So much for the “they don’t attack anyone” nonsense. I won’t mention the mass murder of Iranian dissidents.
5) They aren’t “popular with voters”. The elections are sham. They weren’t “elected”, but came into power 30 years ago through violent revolution, cemented their power after Saddam’s invasion, and maintain it through a millions strong army of thugs (Baseej), the Revolutionary Guard (Pasdaran) and the secret police.
6) Women and non-shia Muslims are second class citizens.
So much for your fantasy world of “fuzzy mullahs with good principles and values, that are shared by US Conservative”.