In other words, what you're seeing is a civil rights struggle, or if you like, a latter-day Chartist movement, Thai-style.
It's really that simple. The particular politics of the "red-shirts" are irrelevant, since their proximate goal is just to have elections, something the regime is loath to allow. It cannot be said enough that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was *never* elected, but was installed by the same elite that overthrew Thaksin's party from power. Somehow, the same press that somehow just knew the Iranian elections were fraudulent, and hence supported the abortive Green Revolution, can find none of the same enthusiasm to back pro-democracy protestors in Thailand who weren't even given the luxury of a rigged vote.