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To hear Democrats tell it, the Republican Party is the tea party. To hear the tea party tell it,the tea party is a totally different entity, composedof Americans of all political stripes (including Democrats!).

Both are gross over-simplifications.

As the below chart from the Public Religion Research Institute shows, the group of people who identify astea partiers is in fact a very small portion of the Republican Party, but it's also overwhelminglycontained within the Republican Party.

What's most interesting, though, is how little overlap there is between the driving force of the Republican Party in the 2000s -- the Christian right -- and the driving force of this decade -- the tea party. And, in fact, the Christian right is actuallymuch more independent/non-Republican than the tea party is, despite the tea party's claims to independence.

Were guessing plenty of folks think those two groups would overlap more than they do on the above chart.

Overall, though, it's worth noting that the vast majority of Republicans belong to neither the tea party nor the Christian right.

Aaron Blake covers national politics and writes regularly for The Fix.

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The Fix: Understanding conservative America in one Venn diagram