"Democracy on the wane; In country after country, democratic reforms are in retreat. The surprising culprit: the middle class" by Joshua Kurlantzick | September 14, 2008
Joshua Kurlantzick is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
And prime globalist bullshitter!!!!
IN THE STREETS of Bangkok, mobs of middle class Thais who would normally hit the city's massive shopping malls have been hitting the pavement instead. For days, hundreds of thousands of protesters have massed in the streets, demanding the resignation of the prime minister, shutting down airports with their protests, and even laying siege to the main government building. As they camped out in the structure, wearing yellow shirts and bandanas, the color of the Thai monarchy, they left the regal buildings looking more like Woodstock, circa 1968.
Maybe AMERICANS could LEARN SOMETHING!!!!?
The antigovernment demonstrators, calling themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, were lashing out at the prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, who they claimed was a tyrant who'd violated a range of laws. In truth, however, they were not battling for democracy - they wanted Samak, who was democratically elected, to step down. In addition, they hated him because he was allied with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whom they accused of massive graft and human rights abuses. Eventually, they got their wish: Last week, the prime minister resigned after losing a controversial court decision.
In the streets, the seas of yellow openly wept with joy. The democrat was deposed.
After being hailed as a democratic success story in the 1990s, Thailand has only gone backward. Rather than settling problems through compromise, Bangkok residents repeatedly take to the streets when things don't go their way.
GOOD!!!!! They don't put up with shit like we do here in AmeriKa!!!!
Instead of pushing for freedom, much of the Thai media and civil society has gone mute, or simply battles against elected governments. With so many crises, the Thai military now either steps in, as it did in 2006, or hovers in the wings, threatening to intervene.
The events unfolding in Thailand are part of a gathering global revolt against democracy. In 2007, the number of countries with declining freedoms exceeded those with advancing freedoms by nearly four to one, according to a recent report by Freedom House, an organization that monitors global democracy trends.
That's a NEO-CON OUTFIT -- and maybe they are REJECTING OUR PUTRID VERSION, did you ever think of that, shitter?
If they CHOOSE to live under a MONARCHY, well then, that IS DEMOCRACY!!!!
Unlike America, where we have chosen nothing of the sort, and yet here one is!!!
And the villains, surprisingly enough, are the same people who supposedly make democracy possible: the middle class.
The PEOPLE are the VILLIANS, huh, globalist shitter?
Traditional theories of democratization, such as those of Harvard professor Samuel Huntington, predict a story of middle class heroics: As a country develops a true middle class, these urban, educated citizens insist on more rights in order to protect their economic and social interests.
Fuck Huntington and his Zionist racism and classism, and his "Clash of Civilzations," too!!!!!!!!
Eventually, as the size of the middle class grows, those demands become so overwhelming that democracy is inevitable. But now, it appears, the middle class in some nations has turned into an antidemocratic force. Young democracy, with weak institutions, often brings to power, at first, elected leaders who actually don't care that much about upholding democracy. As these demagogues tear down the very reforms the middle classes built, those same middle classes turn against the leaders, and then against the system itself, bringing democracy to collapse.
Now doesn't that sound familiar, Americans?
And ANOTHER ASSHOLE GLOBALIST WRONG AGAIN!
This is a process now being repeated in Africa, Asia, and parts of Latin America, regions that once seemed destined to become the third and fourth waves of global democratization, following the original Western democracies and the second wave in southern Europe and several other regions. The pattern has become so noticeable - repeated in Venezuela, Russia, Bangladesh, and other states - that one must even wonder about democracy's future itself.
. . .
Most dangerously, in Russia, where weak democracy in the 1990s built few checks and balances, Vladimir Putin has utilized a blend of populism and nationalism to essentially install himself as an elected dictator.
Yeah, SHOVEL the WAR-PROMOTING AGENDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As for "elected dictators" WE ALREADY GOT ONE in AmeriKa!!!
Name of BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!
And unlike many of these other nations, Russia can serve as an example - as a powerful, relatively rich authoritarian state under Putin, it has funded NGOs across Central Asia, most of which in theory are designed to promote democracy, but whose true function is to help established rulers push back against democrats in those nations.
Oh, like ALL the U.S. NGO's?!!!! Yeah, I AM ANGRY!!!
Happens EVERY TIME some SHITTER PROMOTES WARS based on FUCKING LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Exhibit A for "democracy": PALESTINE!!!!!!!
"Russia under Putin has put on the front burner the creation of Kremlin-sponsored organizations, such as Nashi, that have the veneer of genuine NGOs but are actually designed to obstruct open political discussion," says Chris Walker of Freedom House.
In democracies still on unsure footing, weak institutions prove unable to hold these elected tyrants back.
Tell me about it; I'm an AmeriKan!!!
In Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, and many other nations, the media eventually submitted. The Thai media, too, found it tough to fight back against the rich and influential Thaksin. Newspaper after newspaper submitted to threats, suits, or coercion from Thaksin's allies.
At least they self-censor and work for the rulers here in AmeriKa!!!!
There is no PRETENDING they work for the public here in AmeriKa!!!
We KNOW WHAT THEY ARE, and I need not type it again!!!
Also see: France's Mass-Murdering Holocaust Deniers
In these tough circumstances, the middle classes must decide how to face down growing autocracy.
You awake, America? Get your head out of that bowl of shit, dammit!!!!
With a leader in power they hate, or their confidence in democracy undermined by the graft or tyranny of some of their own elected leaders, members of the middle class sometimes turn against the very project they shed sweat and blood for.
HELLO, AmeriKa!!!!!!!
In country after country, many in the middle class have been surprised to discover that a vote could actually empower groups they do not trust. And once the elected populists start pushing the middle class around, it is natural to wonder whether maybe democracy wasn't such a great idea.
Of course, in some cases elections bring to power populists who genuinely respect democracy - or leaders who, despite their problems, don't actually spark a middle class revolt, perhaps because they are also delivering staggering economic growth, like Putin. But when these elected populists ignore the middle class, tarnish democracy, and deliver little else, chaos breaks loose.
I wish Amerika could have a Putin and not a Bush!!!!
In Russia, many of the educated urban dwellers deplore Putin, but his political strategy, and Russia's growth, have been so successful that they have little influence, leaving the few remaining liberal opposition parties to appear almost comical in their powerlessness.
Now why did the DEMOCRATS just cross my mind, Americans?
Eventually, in many of these weak democracies, members of the middle class place their hopes in the very men they once deplored, realizing they trust the army officers, who tend to come from the same elite backgrounds, more than they trust the newly empowered poor.
Yeah, SURE WE DO!!! That's what you guys SELL US for ELECTIONS!!!!
In Bangladesh, Fiji, Pakistan, Mauritania, Venezuela, and many other states, the military tries to step in, claiming that it must intervene to restore "order," which usually means a return to old elite rule.
Meet the New Boss, same as the old boss!!!
--more--"
Speaking of which, read this to see what a liar this guy is about democracy in Thailand.
Did I call him a globalist shitter?
Well, this article proves it:
Thongchai Winichakul
28 July 2008
Article
Almost all Thai rightists I interviewed for my recent research perceived that the threats to Thailand today are capitalism and America. Even lifelong anti-communist ‘Phor’, an alias used for this research, who has tenaciously held the idea of national security being under threat from two strands of communism, sees that Thailand has to be cautious of the CIA interfering and agitating groups of Thai people to the point of being a threat to security. Of course, they were well aware that the threats from capitalism and America are not one and the same as the communist threat.
The rightists’ discourse of capitalist threat obviously differs from the leftists’ Maoist anti-capitalist discourse of 30 years ago. These rightists speak pretty much the same anti-neo-liberalism and anti-globalization language which Thai intellectuals and activists have adopted since after Oct 6, 1976.
Although all the interviews were done years after the 1997 economic crisis, the pain caused by the capitalist crisis was still alive in their memories. Their discourse on the cause of the crisis turned out to be nationalist and against ‘farang’ or western capitalism, pointing to western capitalist giants led by the US bullying emergent smaller capitalist nations. For the ease of digestion and propagation, it was made a story of conspiracy among a handful of global political and financial figures, often including George Soros in particular. The ‘Washington Consensus’ was understood simply as a plot by western capitalist neo-conservatives to destroy smaller states. With the calamity besetting Thai nationalist capital which had eagerly embraced globalization over a decade earlier, globalization has become undesirable. Their discourse against western capitalism was therefore not of a socialist bent, but was outright nationalist, against those ugly farangs abusing decent Thais.
Most of the interviews were done during the years of Thaksin administration which was seen as representing the evil western capitalism, subsequently labelled as ‘vicious or immoral capital’. The exasperation against Thaksin and globalization and the global anti-American sentiment fed into one another. Among the rightists I interviewed then, only one person liked the Thaksin government, and the rest were suspicious of Thaksin because he was pushing the agenda of globalization.
--MORE--"You CLEAR NOW, readers?
Are you SURPRISED the GLOBALIST shit was bashing TRUE DEMOCRACY?!
