When I was a kid I did quite a bit of traveling with my family, mostly in Europe. What made America different from the other countries, my Dad would tell me, was that we didn't have to carry identification just to exist. In America, a policeman couldn't just stop you on the street and demand that you prove who you are.
If the Republicans who control the Legislature have their way, that America will soon be but a nostalgic memory. Under a proposal from Rep. David Dreier (R-CA), you'll need to carry a new type of electronically encoded Social Security card. But "it's not a national ID card," Dreier explains. "It will only be required for people looking for a new job."
Ah. So if you never need to change jobs, or if you prefer to remain unemployed (or perhaps join the everpresent underground economy), you can do without the card. It's comforting to know our civil liberties will be protected thus. The card will even say, "This card shall not be used for the purpose of identification." Well, then I guess everything's just hunky-dory.
Across the pond in Britain, a proposal for national ID cards is a huge issue, but so far there's been little evidence of a public outcry over the US proposal. Let's hope the American citizenry catches on soon. But the odds are against it. The sneaky bastards are attaching this so-called "Real ID" to the bill funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Al Barger's notes in these pages notwithstanding, my guess is the American public is going to just roll over and take it.
Incidentally, it's also yet another unfunded mandate to the states, whose driver's licenses are to be co-opted and turned into these de facto national identity cards. States'-rights advocate Ronald Reagan has probably been turning in his grave at least since "No Child Left Behind." Now he must really be in a spin cycle.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Maglase
Jon, you must not have changed jobs lately. You already have to provide your Social Security card -plus- a driver's license to "prove employment eligibility".
I bring my passport, which is supposed to be accepted in lieu of showing your SS card, but half the time the clerks you're working with don't accept that.
2 - LoneWolf
It is currently, and always has been, unlawful to travel about the streets without being able to furnish proof as to who you are, such as a drivers license!Everyone born in the united states already has a number assigned to them (Social Security. When I was a kid, you had to apply for one. Today it is assigned at birth.
What's the big deal? Only criminals or someone considering commiting some illegal act wouldn't want to be identified by an ID card. Personally, Bring on the chips!
3 - Eric Berlin
I think there's a lot of merit to having some form of National ID. It could potentially have prevented 9/11, for example.
Still, something about it creeps me out a little bit. It's a Big Brother thing, of course, but I'm reminded even more of The Running Man, one of Gov. Arnold's early starring roles (the novella's far better, but that's another topic). Two classes emerge, basically: citizens and non-, haves and have nots, etc.
4 - nightcrawler
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff this week floated an idea to start a nonprofit group that would collect information on private citizens, flag suspicious activity, and send names of suspicious people to his department.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0405/042905nj1.htm
5 - theSliver
One of the worst arguments for any control on a citizen's movements is that no respectable, law abiding individual could possibly have any reason not to want to identify themself to a legal authority.
Suppose though those legal authorities start asking for that ID in every public place of transport, at railway stations, airports and bus stations? Suppose different States of the Union start controlling movement between their borders identifying those that can and can't enter their State by means of their ID.
There is a more fundamental problem. Officialdom believes that it can control and prevent crime, misuse of public funds and terrorism by a card which can easily be fabricated (its only a smart card after all).
Actual criminals and terrorists will barely be inconvenienced by an ID card, in fact they will be protected by such a card, if its seen as valid (and very few policemen will have portable card readers), then its a validation of the individual carrying the card.
ID cards make Governments both despotic and lazy at the same time.
Just say no.
6 - Bennett Dawson
"It could potentially have prevented 9/11.
The perps of 9-11 were in our country on valid visas. A national ID card would have done nothing in this situation.
7 - Jon Sobel
Maglase: yes, you do need a social security number (and ID) to get a job (a job on the books, anyway), but that's different from needing to present an electronically coded ID card.
LoneWolf: "unlawful to travel about the streets without being able to furnish proof as to who you are?" In the US? Where in the world did you get that idea? Visit the US sometime and check it out before you make statements like that (but do it soon, while freedom still exists here).
8 - Eric Olsen
I have very mixed feelings about this - thanks for bringing it up Jon. I totally agree, though, that something as fundamental as a national identity card nedds to be debated openly and freely and not slipped in by the backdoor
9 - Eric Berlin
Bennett - I believe that had a National ID been in place, information about suspicious activity (flight lessons, etc.) could have more easily been synched up and dealt with.
Does anyone else know more about this?
10 - Dave Nalle
I told you this was coming remember my article "Your Papers Please..." from a couple of months ago? Well, this is the final version of that bill.
For what it's worth, they were also considering much, much worse versions of the bill at first. This is bad, but we could be looking at an ID card with dna info, retina scans and fingerprints on it too.
Dave
11 - Steve S
I still don't understand the value of the card. If you only use it for job employment, then you won't be using it for flight lessons and for purchasing components to bombmaking, etc.
Reading Drier's rationale for the card, it actually has nothing to do with terrorism and has to do with trying to stop illegal immigrants from working. Perhaps David Drier wants everyone to pay 9 dollars for a salad.
12 - Steve S
I'm actually confused as to why anybody in the comment section is even linking this to combatting terrorism. Did they not read the original blog?
13 - Eric Berlin
I was talking about a National ID card with reference to 9/11, Steve. Thanks for bringing the focus back to the original post.
Yeah, you're right -- Drier is likely more concerned with illegal workers (an obvious issue to conservative voters in California) than with terrorism in this situation.
14 - Steve S
The irony, Eric, is that the very people who go on and on about the evils of 'socialistic' liberalism, HERE and elsewhere, make no mention of the fact that they are the ones supporting a system where someone cannot get work without the approval of the State.
15 - Eric Berlin
That's an interesting thought when paired with positions on what people do in the bedroom, to their own bodies, and what people are allowed to say and express over broadcast airwaves.
Very interesting.
16 - Steve S
careful with that line of thought, Eric. You may end up in the asylum with me.
17 - Paul Roy
National ID Cards...yeah, one more thing to hand out to illegal aliens when they enter the country.
18 - Mark Saleski
we should have national id beenies....with appropriate colors for sex and propeller directions for political orientation.
19 - Eric Olsen
or for those who might think beenies a bit to ostentatious, we could have national ID underwear
20 - Mark Saleski
that'd sure make the inspection job more attractive.
sort of.
21 - Temple Stark
and what happens when someone taints yout NATIONAL ID.
How many numbers do we need.
It is not, IIRC, unlawful not to carry ID. It depends upon the state.
I had a dream about this last might. I couldn't produce the appropriate ID to buy something and I was led from department to department to department for days. Can't remember what happened in the end. I think I walked outside to a parade, though that might have been a diff. dream.
22 - Temple Stark
and wtf did I capitalize national ID card?
23 - Steve S
The crazy thing about how conservatives view illegal immigration is that they clearly don't think things through.
There are roughly two types of illegal immigrants. Those who just came here, and those who have been here for years, but are still currently illegal.
Since many jobs like nanny, gardner, etc. are done cash under the table (by many Republicans too, remember when Republican politicians get caught with illegal nannies?) and since many illegals stand on a street corner until an employer drives by with a truck to pick up some labor, this type of stuff will just continue.
But the illegal who has been here for 5+ years, has a place of residence and who holds down a low-paying job, will suddenly find him/herself unemployed. But that doesn't mean this illegal will leave the country, as he/she already identifies this country as home.
Can't find a job? They will just turn to crime, or one of the aforementioned type of jobs, but be unable to maintain the life they are accustomed to (poverty level) and will drop down with the rest into extreme poverty.
I understand the concerns conservatives have when it comes to jobs and illegal behavior, I'm just amazed that not a single one of them can see the blatantly obvious solution.
24 - DrPat
Maglase has a good point, Jon - the SS card was originally not meant to be used for identification. I think research would find that the language of "not an identity number" was necessary to get the program passed.
Yet how often do you give your SSN as an ID, starting with your income tax filing?
And the "Eligible for Employment" paperwork he talks about is a fact of life in hiring today. Employers cannot accept anything but an official government-issed SS card, either. (Unless the candidate has a passport, as Maglase pointed out.)
So we already have IDs for this exact purpose, folks, and how long before the "only for hiring purpose" smart cards become exactly the same universal ID?
25 - gonzo marx
as far as i understand the legislation which has passed the House attached to the financing bill for the military in Iraq and Afghanistan it was for the sole purpose of requiring that those seeking a drivers licence show proof of citizenship
this is to provide some buffer to stopping illegal immigrants from obtaining ID's that would allow them on planes as well as to curtail one avenue of ID for employment purposes
now, i'm a bit ambivalent on this one..i hate the idea of "national ID cards" but i hate illegal immigration even more
add the National Security concern to the equation and it is easy to see why this one would pass...
now as far as i am aware there is no intent to make these any kind of "smart card" it is just an added requirement to obtaining a drivers liscence....this was in response to some states actually providing said liscences to illegals...thus enabling them to have a valid ID card , board planes etc...
since the Supreme Court last year decided that a Citizen's "right to remain silent" does NOT extend to his not being required to identify himself to Authority, i see no reason why not to pass this particular Law...
i had always been of the Opinion that in the US, one had NO responsibility to ID oneself to a cop...but the case in Nevada that went to the Supreme's showed otherwise...
Excelsior!