A Glimpse of the Future of US Democracy?

In the US, no matter our political leanings, the major parties have always held that democracy is what keeps the US running as it should. There are always grumblings of "leftist Democratic liberals" and "brainless Republican rednecks", but our democracy seems to have prevailed so far, somehow (though this is also an arguable point). However, as the Republican party continues to shift to the radical right and some Democrats begin to compensate by shifting to the left, can what's left of bipartisanship remain for much longer?

Let's take a look at Thailand, a country in a similar political situation as ours. Two major parties, the People's Power Party and the Democrat Party. A polarized population, between support for PPP in the rural areas and support for DP in the urban areas around Bangkok. A populist leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, who made life better for rural populations but was widely believed to have engaged in corruption activities.

First came the riots in 2008 by the People's Alliance for Democracy. The PAD (or the "yellow shirts"), based upon urbanites who were against the PPP and determined to bring it down, occupied Bangkok and shut down the city for an entire month. My dad was there, and he witnessed the whole thing - the city was dysfunctional, services were cut, and nothing was working. Tourism collapsed, tourists were trapped as Bangkok's international airport was occupied, and it was estimated that Thailand lost $4 billion in tourism revenue during the single month. Eventually, the PAD won their victory - the government was dissolved, an election was held, and the PPP lost. Democracy prevailed...or did it?

Enter 2009 protests. Supporters of the PPP, or "Red shirts", congregated in Bangkok from all over the country. Determined to bring down what they perceived as an illegitimate government that was raised from the ashes of a PAD coup d'etat, they again occupied Bangkok. Again, services cut, shops closed, untold dollars of lost revenue from tourism not to mention unmeasurable and perhaps irreversible damage to Thailand's reputation for stability. All oddly familiar to the events from only a year ago. But the biggest question is - where had the principles of democracy gone, and what is this system that had replaced it in Thailand?

Many Americans could look at this and say - "oh, that's the principles of democracy at work. Protests? Yeah, they're sticking it to the man - rights of free speech, blah blah." We associate protests or unrests with something that is inherently wrong with the system. Civil rights protests (desegregation), Tiananmen Square (anti-Communism), Tibet (anti-repression). I could go on, but I probably don't need to.

What happens though, when two democratic political parties have so polarized the political spectrum, that neither one could accept the other? We should take the unrest in Thailand with a grain of salt and an open eye...Tea Partiers, anyone? Death threats to politicians who voted for the health care bill?

The US is in many ways different from Thailand. We are decentralized, so that the blockade of a single city can not bring down our economy. We have better security forces to deal with unrest issues. Our two parties are not yet so polarized as to incite violence in common folk. But we should note the current trends of radicalization of the Republican party, and with it, the Democratic Party. It does not take a huge leap of extrapolation to link our current state to that of Thailand's current state, and it certainly does not take a huge leap to imagine a civil war that could result from the unrest in Thailand.

I hate to use the phrase "for the common good", because it has an extremely Communist implication - but when will American politicians and political parties begin thinking and acting for the common good of the people??

-FCDH