In Thailand: Fighting Still. Again. Still.

According to Reuters there is a coup on average every 4.3 years in Thailand, for the past 78 years. One a decade for the last forty years.

Think about that for a moment.

We in the USA don't realize sometimes how good we really have it. Ever since the first one for several centuries, transfers of government power have been almost entirely peaceful. Versus a coup, bloody or not, every few years for the entirety of the memory of every person in the country.

This time it's Red Shirts protesting the government. They say they want democracy. Michael Savage says it's the Socialists making trouble again. My take on it is that in an age of common availability of information and easy distribution of propaganda, the government of Thailand is trying to hold on to the old ways the wrong way. I am sure (because President Reagan did it) that even uneducated common people can be convince that (what Americans call) conservatism is the proper way.

The commoners see the government wanting to take away all the wealth that was being redistributed their way, and they sympathize with the Red Shirts. They see the monarch, army, and parliament trying to take away without explaining why or proposing a better way. Shooting people in the street is not going to convince them your government is the right one. Persuasion works if you have a good leader, even if you have a bad cause.

It begins to look to me as if the parliament in Thailand will have to be dissolved. Possibly even a new Constitution will need to be written. Here's hoping the international Socialist movement won't be cheering the result, whatever happens.