America gets its first taste of internal passports:
The cards would be mandatory for all "federal purposes," which include boarding an airplane or walking into a federal building, nuclear facility or national park, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the National Conference of State Legislatures last week. Citizens in states that don't comply with the new rules will have to use passports for federal purposes.
It's going to get very interesting for people in states that have gone against Real ID. Step three of the process of getting a passport will prove to be very difficult for people who are living in a state that isn't party to Real ID. According to the process as it currently exists, you can have someone vouch for you provided that they meet the requirements, but in a state that doesn't follow the guidelines of Real ID you are going to need someone with a military ID card or some other federal ID card that is accepted. This sort of process could be useful for them to strong-arm many of the smaller states into coming into the fold and complying with Real ID.
In the end we may not have real internal passports, just a system of driver's licenses that are so harmonized that they can function as a national ID card. Same difference.
While we're on the topic of free movement throughout the country, I thought this was appropriate:
Capt. Vasili Borodin: I will live in Montana. And I will marry a round American woman and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pickup truck... maybe even a "recreational vehicle." And drive from state to state. Do they let you do that?
Captain Ramius: I suppose.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: No papers?
Captain Ramius: No papers, state to state.
Capt. Vasili Borodin: Well then, in winter I will live in... Arizona. Actually, I think I will need two wives.
Captain Ramius: Oh, at least.
You know, that scene from The Hunt for Red October sprang into my mind, too, before I even got to that part of your post.
Can you think of a better pop culture reference that adequately shows the difference between the Soviet Union and the United States back when the USSR existed? ;)
How about:
"License and registration, please"
or,
"please have your boarding pass and ID ready for inspection."
In historical context, "papers" were not just ID but also a specific authority to travel to a specific destination.
There is nothing wrong with having some form of national ID card. I won't even resort to the "everyone else does" argument. It is patently stupid that we do not already have one for everything from driving, voting, bearing arms, proof of minimum age and club access.
Of course, a national ID card would make it a lot easier for all of your records to be seamlessly accessed by government agents and officials. Do you really want that, Roci? In the not so-distant future you could have everything from your criminal record to credit card transactions available to them on the fly through the common key provided by such an ID.
Not to mention it's giving the government even more power. That's just always a bad idea.
I'm reminded of the scene where two of the escapees are asked for their documents just before boarding a train in "The Great Escape". They get busted because the Nazi realizes that they're wearing the same clothes as the ones in their ID pictures.
When oh when will freedom loving men stand up to these fascists?!?
Do you really want that, Roci?
as opposed to everybody else already having that information with my blessing? Why the heck not?
The federal government has been the originator of almost all of my records since I was 17. Why would I have no expectation that they could not access it?
One reason I don't fear that scenario is that I know that the more information the government has, the les valuable and relevent each piece is. The only thing I really have to worry about is fabricated data, and I have no defense against that anyway.
We aren't fighting the Nazis, fascists, or Commies any more. When you stop living in WW2 movies, there is no rational reason to resist having a national ID card.
I've had one for the past 30 years. Nothing bad has happended yet.
Try to keep things in context. You already have a driver's license. It is the same thing.
I've had a passport since I was two and they had me and brother and sister on our mom's. I think we were lumped again on the '66 "tour". I got my own when I was sixteen.