A few days ago, I shared this schematic and called it a “Venn Diagram for the New Revolution.”:
One reader responded thusly:
“except the statement in the middle neither says that the government has too much power nor is part of the tea party opinion pool
conclusion: the author neither understands venn diagrams nor political opinions.”
I’m glad she/he did so, because it brings up an important point I should articulate further:
The daily talking points from the Libertarian Party, which I understand is NOT the Tea Party as such but draws form the same well, tows this line: “corporations have too much power because the government has too much power.” Even though strong elements in the Tea Party believe that limited government inevitably means more real power for corporations (and crazily, they’re okay with that), I do believe that there’s an equally sizable pool that agrees with corresponding parts of OWS on the idea that both corporations and the government have too much power, and that the problem is self-sustaining. Yes, a simple diagram doesn’t get at these nuances. But it’s helpful for people who believe as do I and many readers that powerful constituencies in OWS and the TP could collaborate in meaningful ways.
If you were to swap the inner and outer labels of the two circles, and make the centre circle something like, but not necessarily, “What libertarians are worried about,” it would a perfect Venn diagram, assuming you agree that libertarians are worried about both.