And, of course, the right to vote is also important if you know of the existence of people by whom the government is not doing well. George W Bush has not done me any personal harm, but I want him and his friends out (and someone who isn't his friend in) so bad it hurts, so the right to vote in America is plenty important to me right now.

If you have a despotism that does right by all the people, as the one in Thailand clearly did, then it's hard to see the value of replacing it with a democracy which could go either way. And if anyone thought the current government in America would be that kind of despotism, then I could understand them not being that concerned about having the right to change it. I might have a few small points of disagreement to take up with them, though.