It means I don't really remember much about the time before Bill Clinton and that, during his eight years as President, the GOP was
always trying to get him out of office, one way or another, and to prevent any legislation from being passed. Of course, Barry Goldwater died in 1998, so his anti-bipartisanship efforts would have happened before I was even born. Which means it's not really a new thing at all.
And, in case the name Barry Goldwater doesn't mean anything to you, he was in Nixon's circle and government. He was against desegregation of any kind. Thought it was an overreach of the federal government to defend Civil Rights. He didn't disavow the KKK when they endorsed him when he ran for President... You get the idea.
The thing about Iran... It's not a Western democracy. It will likely never be a Western democracy because, in light of its own bad history with the UK and the United States, any push to be a Western democracy will be rejected as more or less "caving" to the "enemy." And it's got the Muslim equivalent of the kind of conservative social movement you see all over the United States, only instead of saying "abortion is for bad girls,'" they have "only 'bad girls' show their ankles," or whatever.
And, just like in the United States, that's not at all how everyone thinks.
It's not a perfect country, but then no country is a perfect country. It has secret prisons, the United States has Guantanamo Bay.
So, I don't know, it just doesn't feel right that the United States gets to dictate terms to Iran, I guess.