Ever since the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations started in New York, the media have been almost non-stop in trying to find common ground between the two movements, and to say that they represent different approaches to objections over the same matters.
There may be something to this. If you look past the fact that at the Tea Party gatherings there were no murders, no rapes or other sexual assaults, no beatings, no drug dealing or drug use, no robberies, no public intoxication, no public urination or defection, no public fornication, no property destruction, no use of tear gas, pepper spray or riot gear by police, and add that the Tea Party people didn't ask for food or clothing or tents or sleeping bags or money or toilets or changes of underwear or medical facilities, and that the Tea Party gatherings were only a few hours long because participants needed to either get back to work or back to tending to their families, and that Tea Party participants are asking the government to stop spending money rather than spend more to give them free stuff (as the Occupy folks are asking)...
Aside from all that, I'd say the two movements have quite a bit in common.
