Reasons Why Ron Paul Opposes a National ID Card (printable)

Topic: Ron Paul
Reasons Why Ron Paul Opposes a National ID Card

REAL ID legislation is the greatest affront to our civil liberties since the passage of the USA Patriot Act. Consider these reasons for opposing this federal scheme to invade your privacy.
by Jake Morphonios
(conservative libertarian)
Tuesday, January 15, 2008

I understand the point of view of those who are pressing for national ID cards to help prevent terrorism. They argue that if we could only establish a federal card, like a driver's license, we could catch would-be terrorists here on expired visas. If the federal government was only trying to tie in the expiration date on a person's drivers license to his visa expiration date, it wouldn't be a big deal. But that is not the ultimate goal of the government. They have tried again and again to justify the establishment of a national citizen's identification card, and now they are taking advantage of the public's fear of terrorism to further their agenda.

Congressman Ron Paul writes: "A national identification card, in whatever form it may take, will allow the federal government to inappropriately monitor the movements and transactions of every American. History shows that governments inevitably use the power to monitor the actions of people in harmful ways."

On the surface, nationalizing id cards for citizens might sound like it has its good points. Hey! We might have stopped one of the nineteen 9-11 hijackers if only the hundreds of millions of Americans had uniform identification cards. But the benefits come only at the expense of the rights of our citizens.

First, it is absolutely out of the realm and responsibility of the federal government to be reaching down into the states and taking away their constitutional sovereignty. The constitution explicitly guarantees powers to the states that are not given to the federal government.

Determining what qualifies a little old lady in North Dakota to drive her car is NOT an issue for the federal government to be addressing. The founding fathers never intended for the central government to be so strong that it could take control of state-level issues as it pleased. It's as if the federal government hasn't heard of the 10th Amendment.

I would imagine that initially the government would set somewhat reasonable qualifications for a national driver's license. But what would come next - after tempers and opposition to it have died down?

The government has already made it a law that all states must offer to register people to vote when they get their license. Hey, everyone should vote! Maybe the government will make registering to vote a prerequisite for obtaining their national ID card! And don't think for a minute that the federal government wouldn't try it!

These do-gooder politicians are so self-righteous that they believe they know what is best for everyone in the entire nation and so they take power away from states if they think the state isn't doing a good enough job.

Second, consider the overall effectiveness of that a national ID card could have. Would a national ID card prevent terrorists from entering the country? No. Would a national ID card stop terrorists from purchasing materials for bombs? Or prevent them from constructing a weapon of mass destruction to be used domestically? What about a rash of terrorists entering public places like banks and igniting their suicide bomber vests? An ID card wouldn't prevent such terrorism.

Terrorists will simply go around places that require a national ID card and commit massive attacks on Americans through other channels. Very little terrorism can be prevented by a piece of plastic.

Third, consider the level of competency of the people who will be monitoring and administering the national id program. We all remember the black eye we received when the INS renewed the visas for two of the 9-11 hijackers 6 months AFTER they were already dead and made infamous. To add salt to the wound, the government, which was on high alert to visa violations, sent the renewed visas to the flight school where the terrorists had received their training!

Can anyone have faith that a government that demonstrates such incompetence with existing programs can become more efficient by adding the administration of a new national ID card program to its work load?

On this point, Ron Paul has written, "Subjecting every citizen to surveillance and 'screening points' will actually make us less safe, not in the least because it will divert resources away from tracking and apprehending terrorists and deploy them against innocent Americans! "

Fourth, think about the caliber of people who will be checking these ID cards at security checkpoints in the airports. These people - many of whom never graduated high school - are going to be responsible for checking ID's. These people are failing security checks on a daily basis! People can still walk through a checkpoint with knives on them and not get caught. Remember that these elite workers are now federal employees. Is this federal program any more effective than it was before? Not at all.

No offense to the folks who are screening people at airport baggage checkpoints, but until they can start catching people with knives in their pockets, I don't want them to be distracted by having to verify the authenticity of an identification card.

Lastly, if the purpose of the national ID card is to help catch terrorists who might be hiding in the United States on expired visas, then what good would it have done on September 11th? Only 1 of the 19 hijackers had an expired visa.

In summary:

1. A move toward national ID cards is a usurpation of power by the federal government.

2. National ID cards would have little overall effect on terrorism.

3. The federal government is grossly incompetent and cannot even correctly administer its present visa programs.

4. Baggage checkpoint workers cannot be relied on to check IDs properly.

5. Most terrorists have been here on valid visas, so that means the average terrorist would qualify for the same national ID card that you or I would have.

Ron Paul has said, "Just as we must not allow terrorists to threaten our lives, we must not allow government to threaten our liberties."

Given these reasons and more, federalizing citizen identification cards is a bureaucratic suicide bomb waiting to explode.

[Author's note: I originally wrote this article in 2004 at a time when a national ID card was only a rumor. As of today, the REAL ID CARD is a reality. For more information, please visit Ron Paul's website.]

The views expressed in this article are those of Jake Morphonios only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Jake Morphonios is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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