I didn’t like it whe…

I didn’t like it when Democrats did it, and I still don’t like it when Republicans do.

A recent vote in Congress endorsing standardized, electronically readable driver’s licenses has raised fears about whether the proposal would usher in what amounts to a national ID card.

In a vote that largely divided along party lines, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a Republican-backed measure that would compel states to design their driver’s licenses by 2008 to comply with federal antiterrorist standards. Federal employees would reject licenses or identity cards that don’t comply, which could curb Americans’ access to everything from airplanes to national parks and some courthouses.

The congressional maneuvering takes place as governments are growing more interested in implanting technology in ID cards to make them smarter and more secure. The U.S. State Department soon will begin issuing passports with radio frequency identification, or RFID, chips embedded in them, and Virginia may become the first state to glue RFID tags into all its driver’s licenses.

Here in Georgia, having your fingerprint digitized on the back of your driver’s license was pushed largely by state Democrats. I remember a local radio talk-show host who was a big supporter of Democrats express his dismay at one particular vote that went straight along party lines. To me, it was just business as usual; what I would have expected.

But now Republicans are doing the same thing at the federal level, and I’m just as against it now as I was then. This is pitting the “law and order” crowd against the “less intrusive government” crowd. Looks like the former group is winning in the Republican party. Yes, we are in a post-9/11 world, but the nature of government–especially its tendency to expand new programs and misuse data originally intended for a narrow purpose–has not changed. We need to balance both these facts so that we don’t turn America into a nation where the phrase “Your papers, please” is common.

Filed under: Uncategorized

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!