So I turned on good ol' NPR this morning in the middle of a political program and I heard something like "... of course there are checks and balances in place in the country's Constitution to prevent a concentration of power, but when someone deliberately ignores them, what can you do? Also, his party controlled the entire government because they were very good at manipulating the system, so it was a corrupt single party rule and many of the intended checks and balances simply don't work when that's the case. Of course, this man was elected democratically, we can't forget that, but he'd abused his office to the point that the people wouldn't stand any more. This coup by the army really might have been the only solution."
And I thought to myself, sweet fancy Moses, what have I missed?
And then, listening some more, I realized they were talking about Thailand.*
* I am reminded of another blog I read a while ago, when someone pointed out that over half of the population of the largest democracy in the world was illiterate peasants, and someone else got all het up about describing Americans as peasants.
Well, I wouldn't go as far as Mr. Chavez, who's picked up the over-the-top-anti-American-speeches torch that Mr. Castro had dropped. But there were enough congruencies in the situations that I was genuinely confused for a minute.