You do realize that western policies to this day have emboldened the mullahs in power? These sanctions just increase their control, and US govt obviously knows it. So much border trade occurs in spite of the actions, and mullahs garner more control. Nuclear deal was another case.

The Iranian regime is absolutely brutal at repressing revolt, the revolts are also violent but of course nothing can match a state apparatus that has to shut the country to the outside world to hide the massacre; the country has been in a state of civil unrest for the better part of the past 6 years and I count the Wikipedia estimates at some 4000 dead from the response of state actors.

Yeah, why haven't they overthrown a brutally repressive regime? Haven't they heard of Ghandi?

Please - don't do this. You don't know how hard it is for revolutions to succeed

For all of those 44 years, the US has been continuously sanctioning, attacking, isolating, and threatening Iran.

Counties live in the shadow of things that happened thousands of years ago... 44 years is barely a generation.