I think a similar chart could be made to categorize conservatives and right-leaning libertarians. The Birchers would end up in the upper-left quadrant. They would be the ones that believed that the system was so rigged that nothing effectual could be done. They're mostly naysayers. They speak up only to drown out other more optimistic voices.
Not finding much in the text relevant to the issue here, I do, however, take your point about the chart and JBS's position relative to the majority of conservatives. They have given up and given in to the fear-mongers.
Unfortunately, fear is a terrible obstacle... it's one thing to be vigilant, to be cautious and deliberative. But to blindly succumb to fear, to be willingly led astray, to become paralyzed and incapable of cognizant discrimination between truth and disinformation, then to stand for nothing but obstructionism is another thing altogether.
I was attracted to the John Birch Society at the end of the 1960's because of their solid conservative principles and their unabashed anti-Communism--bold colors, as Ronald Reagan would say. But I soon noticed that they always seemed to oppose more optimistic voices. In the 1970's, I was an enthusiastic supporter of Ronald Reagan, but the Birchers were dead set against him. That, and their silly notion that a "Master Conspiracy" is behind all the bad things that are happening in the world disillusioned me.
The Birchers went on to be perhaps the only ones on the right to oppose Proposition 13, California's property tax limitation initiative. In the 1980's, they opposed supporting the Nicaraguan Contras, and in the 1990's, they opposed Newt Gingrich in his efforts to fulfill his Contract With America.
It's a safe bet that the Birchers will be going all out to sandbag Ted Cruz and Scott Walker in the upcoming presidential race.
The article is very biased.
I oppose COS not because I’m reflexively defeatist but because it won’t work. You won’t get “liberty amendments” by a COS whose members are chosen by the left and GOPe. You’ll get liberal amendments.
And once that liberalism is written into the Constitution, the next step I fear will be a civil war.
There are ways to fight the federal monster short of allowing the left and GOP establishment alter our basic social contract. It’s time for states to just say no.
1. What will fedzilla do when multiple states simply say, “Make me.”
2. What would fedzilla do if a state mandated that all taxes, including withholding and SS/Medicare, be remitted to the state - and the state will decide what to forward to Washington?
3. What will fedzilla do when a state criminalizes the actions of agencies such as EPA and issues warrants for the arrest of agents violating state law by enforcing illegal federal standards?
There is quite a bit of pushback available short of a process that can only lead to the destruction of our social contract that will come with devastating results to the society built on that contract.
I don’t oppose COS because I’m a defeatist. I oppose it because letting people opposed to liberty choose delegates to a constitutional convention is a bad strategy that will lead to war. COS supporters discount a runaway convention as not possible.
I disagree with good reason: who’ll choose the delegates?