Iran is a 47 year war, Texas Primaries and Elections

By Beth Guide | Talking Purple | Houston, TX | March 14, 2025

Back in a new studio, Beth Godt pulls no punches — challenging mainstream narratives on Iran, calling out her own party’s electoral blind spots, and demanding common sense from both sides of the aisle.

1. Iran: The End of a 47-Year War

While cable news scrambles to frame the latest developments in Iran as the dawn of a dangerous new conflict, Beth Godt sees something entirely different — the closing chapter of a war that started when she was in sixth grade.

“I was ten, eleven years old when the Shah fell,” she says. “For those of us that remember, this is not new. The mullahs have been running Iran as extremists and fundamentalists for nearly fifty years.”

What gives Beth’s perspective particular weight isn’t punditry — it’s personal. Living in Austin and Houston, she’s spent decades in communities with Iranian dissidents who escaped the regime. The stories, she says, are all the same. One woman’s grandparents get out of bed every single morning waiting to hear that Iran is free.

“This is no different than the fall of the Berlin Wall under Reagan. I’m looking at it as Trump ending another cold war — not starting a new one.”

She draws a clear line between American and Israeli interests, noting the two nations may not share the same long-term goals. On Turkey — a NATO ally — she’s blunt: “Unless you’re talking about a turkey sandwich, you probably shouldn’t go after Turkey right now.”

Her bottom line: the people who actually lived under that oppression are relieved. Framing this as reckless warmongering, she argues, completely erases their voices.

2. Texas CD-2: A Primary Nobody Showed Up For

Dan Crenshaw is out. Steve Toth is in. And only 13% of Republicans voted. Beth doesn’t sugarcoat what that means heading into the general against Democrat Sean Finney, who is actively positioning himself as a moderate.

The structural problem: a moderate Democrat who caucuses with Democrats is still a Democrat vote. The center-left framing may win a general election, but the governing reality doesn’t change. Beth’s message to Republicans is blunt — you cannot win from the far right. You will lose. And then you will wonder why.