I, much like you, am a person just trying to make sense of the world. Before you spew hate, recall this.

I am an observer of politics that tries to "play the game" a bit differently. There are tells at times to my "leanings" but I try very hard to make it difficult to understand how I view the world or who I stand with. As a result, I follow many people on both "sides" of many issues. I follow people of many parties, view points, and affiliations in order to better understand (140 characters at a time mind you) how they try to draw support for their truth being more correct then others. In doing this, I've identified a common thread that should form the 3rd major political party, but hasn't (yet) because the other two require us all to be divided (it sells better on the news).

Let's abstract potentially negative messaging and viewpoints; what common threads exist between the two "extremist" (media deemed, not my own) political movements that make up both "major" political parties? Because if we study and understand the concerns of the "extremists" maybe we can figure out how to form a new camp that encompasses both.

Two candidates right now are offshoots of grassroots activism the last decade.

### Occupy

Bernie Sanders probably immediately comes to mind if you follow or believe in this political movement. It's largely (but not exclusively) thought of as:

- Banks are corrupt
- Tax policy isn't tipped in the favor of the little guy
- The system is rigged so the rich keep getting richer
- Minorities are especially excluded and abused by this system of control
- We are in endless wars we have no business being in
- Politics needs reform to prevent corruption

In this world view, Banks and The Rich are largely thought of as the source of corruption so we need government to be brought back into control of the people in order to eliminate the corruption.

### Tea

There are several Republican figures that come to mind when the Tea Party is evoked but based on the principles of less government involvement, lower taxes and anti-corruption I'd have to say Ted Cruz is the spokesperson. Bullet points here:

- Government is too big and corrupt (as a result)
- Taxes are too high (as a result of too big bureaucracy)
- The system is rigged, political elites keep getting richer
- Everyone is abused by this system
- Politics needs reform to prevent corruption
- In this world view, Government and hierarchies are largely to blame, not them in and of themselves, but because of the types of people that find their way into these hierarchies. For example, a complex tax code leads to it being written in a way to benefit some and not others.

I largely ignore social issues in analysis and selection on candidates. It's weird to say but I've seen that social change is enacted from pressures from society as a whole. As a result, the rising up of people that are passionate about change is how to enact social change.

### This is 2016

With the internet, with technology, with all our capabilities to spread positivity, crowd fund and disseminate information; how are we still here? A two party system with media coverage and collusion that leads us to largely all unhappy. We're allowing our media and social media to keep us apart. What can we agree on even in these two extreme propositions of Occupy and Tea Party movements.

### Corruption is king

How can we reduce corruption? Both sides identify this but then have different views on Taxes (we aren't doing enough vs we're doing too much). This will be my tell as a classic liberal, but we need less of a system in order to have less corruption. This doesn't mean we don't need a system but we do need a less complex system (taxes and in general); and here's why.

If you are a developer you may have heard of "legacy code" and the need to refactor code. Unlike other resources, having more code does not equate to having more effective code. Well friends, we're running on legacy code that is in desperate need of refactorring. We've got a great operating system, but we've been adding way too much functionality and it's bringing the whole thing down. We don't need to throw away everything we've ever done, but we do need to take those concepts and completely rewrite them for the modern era.

Yes, Government needs it's Drupal 8 moment. Is the end product "the same"? In some ways yes. We still make a CMS, it still makes great websites and it's still responsive. But we're rooting out all the bloat that's weighing our awesome product down. We're doing things smarter, not always differently.

Corruption and governmental refactoring needs to be the focus of a unified movement between Occupy and Tea people. Quit arguing over social policy, quit arguing your party or person vs their party or person. Look beyond parties, look at what we're doing to our country and unite to pull us back from the edge (where edge is Fascism, rioting because of corruption, further deepening of racial divides). Quit pointing the finger and start reaching out with love. Lay down your ideologies and realize this: We are all not that different, we all want the corruption to end. Seek out those that have this message. One says we can have less corruption through regulation while the other proposes solutions that involve tearing down parts of the institution to reduce corruption though there being less of it.

Personally, I'm for the refactor (because where are these more perfect Angels) but align on anti-corruption and we will solve our problems.