A Very Simple Venn Diagram of Where the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street Agree

[Matariki]

[DLnyc]

1. in other words, the large corpogovermentation has

too much power.

[Brother Buzz]

2. The corporations have way too much power and the rent is still too damn high

[Rhiannon12866]

6. :D

:D

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. need a new non-overlap on the right - "because the president is a black man".

And it is a big circle, and needs to be in bold. To me, THAT is one of the biggest differentials - racism of the baggers.

[Merlot]

8. You actually think they'd like him more if he were white?

The presidents first offense is that he's a democrat.

And they basically feel the same about ALL democrats.

[NRaleighLiberal]

9. not a case of "like". But I am sure less "deep hatred".

[iris27]

32. Well, they wouldn't be making Photoshops of a white president in "tribal" getup

with a bone through his/her nose.

[TalkingDog]

4. I've been saying this for a couple of weeks. There are areas of commonality

People don't want to seem to hear it though.

They think Teabaggers have cooties.

[RKP5637]

7. There is overlap IMO. Both are frustrated with "the system." They approach it

from different spectrums, but the net/net of it all is, "the system" is not working.

[IndyPragmatist]

26. When movements become partisan, they fail

The Tea Party had just as much momentum (if not more) in it's early stages. They were actually influencing policy from the start. However, as they moved further away from the center, they lost power. People stopped viewing them as concerned citizens and quickly viewed them as right-wing nutjobs. This is exactly what is happening with OWS. We are still in the beginning of the movement, and people are generally supportive of it. However, if it just moves to the left, it will die...quickly.

You are right TalkingDog, instead of embracing the mutual aim (of getting corporate influence out of government), they attack those who don't support the same politicians as them. I was amazed when I visited the initial rally for Occupy Indianapolis by how many people were wearing Obama t-shirts while holding up signs saying they are against bailouts or corporate influence in Washington. The people that are trying to make this a partisan movement will kill the movement within months if this keeps up.

[rhett o rick]

5. Disagree. T-Party thinks the government has too much power over corps while

they are ok with government power over people (Patriot Act, no medical mary jane, no abortions, etc.) while the OWS says the corp-government has way to little power over corps but too much over people.

[CJCRANE]

18. Good summary nt

[IndyPragmatist]

27. The Tea Party doesn't support the Patriot Act

http://articles.boston.com/2011-02-14/bostonglobe/29337441_1_tea-party-provision-government
EDITORIAL
February 14, 2011|Globe Editorial
IT WASN’T just an ideological oddity when 26 Republican House members, including seven Tea Party-backed freshmen, joined with 122 Democrats last week to defeat a bill extending three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act. The Tea Party makes much of protecting Americans’ constitutional rights from government intrusion, and that commitment demanded a vote against the bill.

[rhett o rick]

33. I stand corrected. Thank you. nm

[Politicalboi]

10. Are the Kock brothers

A small business? The Teabaggers should drop their funding yesterday.

[markpkessinger]

11. This only holds true if you buy the right's spin on the Tea Party

Look, some folks in the Tea Party may think their movement is a grassroots movement against corporate/government power, but the reality is this: the Tea Party's origin was Chicago Mercantile Exchange trader Ric Santelli's rant -- a planned and well-orchestrated bit of political theater -- railing against President Obama's proposals to help homeowners whose mortgages were in danger of foreclosure to refinance or renegotiate the terms of their mortgage so that they wouldn't lose their homes. Here's one of the quotes from Santelli's vomitous spew:

"Do we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages? This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills?"

THAT was what the Tea Party was all about. The right wing plays a shell game when it comes to what they claim the Tea Party stands for. But Santelli's original diatribe embodies the reality of what that movement is. Santelli was a one-percenter ranting against assistance given to ninety-nine percenters. Later modifications to a more mainstream-sounding agenda were nothing more than the work of political pros who knew they had to make their agenda at least appear to be somewhat reasonable.

There is NO overlap whatsoever between the two movements!

[rhett o rick]

20. I so agree. No overlap. nm

[Blue_In_AK]

12. It should be obvious to anyone

that Washington and Wall Street are two sides of the same coin. And right now the very wealthy are holding ALL the coins.

[Hydra]

13. The "tea-party" don't even really exist

They're just a group of highly financed far RW republican authoritarians and their shepherds.

I've seen this twice today, and it's still wrong. the TPers WANT big gov't...as long as it's enforcing the things that they want, and killing the people they don't like(that would be us).

[w4rma]

15. The followers exist. And we can redefine their movement.

Their members essentially believe what is in the above Venn Diagram, so it is our job to listen to the members and help the members take over their TP from the aristocrats (even if they don't think they need help with that).

[a la izquierda]

21. You get back to me and tell me how that works out.

I'm related to tea baggers. They see zero, zilch, nada in common with OWS. None. I can't stress that enough. OWS is a bunch of socialist hippies who want everything for free.

[Exultant Democracy]

34. "OWS is a bunch of socialist hippies who want everything for free."... Say what?!?!?!

you are kidding right?

[a la izquierda]

38. See my response...

I re-read what I wrote and realized it was not obvious that this was something said to me by a teabagging family member.
Sorry about that.

[a la izquierda]

36. Sorry, should've phrased differently.

That should be an indicator of the mindframe of Teabaggers (at least as my sister-in-law sees it). That's what she intimated to me on facebook.


I'm a socialist, so of course I'd never say that. My feelings on OWS inclusivity are a little hesitant.

[JI7]

14. huh ? TEa party is upset the president is black, has nothing to do with issues

[redqueen]

23. +1

All the issues they suddenly got upset about only became a problem for them after Obama was elected.

[coalition_unwilling]

16. At Occupy Los Angeles, I saw someone I think was a Ron Paul supporter

carrying a sign that said, "Fascism: When you have to go to Wall Street to protest your government."

While technically not an accurate definition of fascism, the sentiment on that sign is one that most if not all on the Left can agree with, I think.

[greyl]

17. That's a good sign. nt

[mwb970]

19. The difference is, the government is "we the people".

The corporations are "they the top 1%".

Another difference: We are right; they are wrong.

[ItNerd4life]

22. Nicely Done. I've always believed this.

Even though people on DU rant against the Tea Party, I've always believed in some of their ideals.

This does help explain it.

[stuntcat]

24. so- Large Corporations are currupting the govt.. & also we should trust these same Corporations to..

to do the right thing... hm, yeah I see....

Oh no wait, I don't see that..

What I do see is how DEMOCRACY is supposed to make the government work in everyone's favor.
But I guess this is what makes me the opposite of a "Conservative" ? :shrug:

:kick:

[ehrnst]

25. What is missing is the WHY of the overlap. The baggers were fine with Bush's excess and big gov't.

They had NO problem with that when a white president was doing all that stuff.

Only when Obama was elected that they seem to think it suspect or out of control.

[chaska]

28. Inverse Fascism....

An ex-professor of mine was interviewed by a local paper recently. Brilliant man, BTW. He said that what we have now is inverse fascism. Mussolini's idea was gov't controlled business. What we have is business controlled gov't. Damn, that's even worse!

[yurbud]

29. you can get a rightie to say agree with the corporate piece in the middle but getting them

to act on it or even agree what appropriate action IS is something else entirely.

[joeybee12]

30. Actually, I don't think the Tea party thinks corporations can do no wrong...nt

[Tsiyu]

31. I honestly wish it were that simple

But I have never heard a teabagger complain to me about regulations favorable to corporations.

Instead, they parrot the RightWing schtick about tax breaks for corporations creating jobs, and de-regulation creating jobs, and rich people being the only ones creating jobs. In other words, they back de-regulation and government subsidies for corporations, but not for human people.

YMMV

[sofa king]

35. Forgive me. I had to do this.

[Matariki]

39. lol

true that :-(

[Motown_Johnny]

37. Can't the middle just say "The People Don't Have Enough Power"?

[gulliver]

40. The two side regions are right, but not the middle one.

I think the OWSers would rather have government in charge, and corporations healthy, but not in charge.

Tea Partiers want corporations in charge and the government unhealthy and not in charge.

That's why the Tea Partiers are as completely wrong as they can possibly be. There is no overlap with the OWSers.

Tea Partiers don't really think the government has way too much power, by the way. If the government outlawed abortion, homosexuality, tattoos, piercing, miscegenation, and then mandated Christian prayer in the schools, the Tea Partiers would be all for a powerful government. They hate the government now only because the government represents the majority, and they see themselves losing the majority. They see their culture dying. In that respect, we should feel sorry for them.

The irony of the Tea Party is its embrace of corporations. It is the act of desperate people. They are throwing themselves right into the jaws of the heartless, unfettered business machine that is killing them. Their only hope is government, and they are against it.