Self-Unaware Extremist

Ken AshfordHealth CareLeave a Comment

The Washington Post has a nice little biographical article about a guy named Mike Vanderboegh.  Vanderboegh, a former militiaman from Alabama, is a blogger and self-proclaimed opposer of health care reform.

His profile is pretty much what you would expect, full of blargh blargh about health care reform:

"The federal government should not have the ability to command us to buy something that it decides we should buy," Vanderboegh said. The government, he added, has "absolutely no idea the number of alienated who feel that their backs are to the wall are out here . . . who are not only willing to resist this law to the very end of their lives, but are armed and are capable of making such resistance possible and perhaps even initiating a civil war."

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Vanderboegh said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Democrats should beware "unintended consequences of their actions." Vanderboegh outlined a complicated theory that IRS agents will go after people who refuse to buy insurance or pay the fines, ultimately resulting in "civil war."

"The central fact of the health-care bill is this, and we find it tyrannical and unconstitutional on its face," Vanderboegh said. "The federal government now demands all Americans to pay and play in this system, and if we refuse, we will be fined, and if we refuse to pay the fine, they will come to arrest us, and if we resist arrest . . . then we will be killed. The bill certainly doesn't say that, but that's exactly and precisely what is behind every bill like this."

He said his call for people to throw bricks is "both good manners and it's also a moral duty to try to warn people."

Somewhat disturbing reading, but be sure not to miss the punchline buried deep in the article:

Vanderboegh said he once worked as a warehouse manager but now lives on government disability checks. He said he receives $1,300 a month because of his congestive heart failure, diabetes and hypertension.

Sadly, the Washington Post interviewer apparently didn't ask Vanderboegh about the irony of his views — a man who demands a small government that leaves him alone, while cashing taxpayer-funded government checks each month.