By Peyton Knight
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck. It
is a DUCK! The push for a national identification system is in full swing
by state driver’s license bureaucrats. The American Association of Motor
Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) has launched a campaign to convince the
federal government to allow them to add driver’s most sensitive
information to state-issued licenses.
At issue is the establishment of a National ID system, something that
in these times of heightened concern for security has the allure of
providing security, but would, instead, steal everyone’s right to
privacy. All totalitarian governments require national identification
cards. Our form of government, however, holds that the preservation of
individual liberty is its highest priority. The Constitution’s Bill of
Rights exists for this single purpose.
The AAMVA would include information on a driver’s license that would
range from fingerprints to biometric data. The AAMVA is lobbying for
millions of dollars of federal money to study the creation of a national
database that would cost billions of dollars to link every state; this is
total centralization of critical and, until now, private information. The
end result is the dreaded, national ID system that privacy advocates have
been fighting for years.
Led by the Free Congress Foundation, forty-three national organizations
have joined together to oppose this latest assault on privacy. These
include the American Legislative Exchange Council and the National
Conference of State Legislatures. Organizations as diverse as Eagle Forum
and the American Civil Liberties Union have found common ground. Letters
have been sent to President Bush and Secretary of Transportation, Norman
Mineta.
Apart from the obvious larger threat, the AAMVA effort is on a fast
track. Betty Serian of AAMVA stated at a January 14th press
conference: "We want to move swiftly. As swiftly as we can. First and
foremost, we want a short-term legislative agenda which we hope to move
forward within the next thirty to sixty days to include such things as
uniformity, security features on licenses that would be standardized
across the states."
By contrast, Twila Braze, president of the Citizen’s Council on
Health Care, one of the signers of the protest letter, said her
organization "views the national ID as a tool that will allow
government tracking of private medical decisions, government health care
databases, unconsented medical research, and use of health care data to
create public policy supportive of health care rationing."
A national ID system will be rampant with fraud and abuse, but mistakes
made by bureaucrats alone would make citizens’ lives a living hell.
Currently, 30% of the information stored in federal databases is
incorrect. A single mistake on your new national ID card could make it
impossible for you to drive a car, apply for a credit card, or even get a
job.
A national ID system will not, however, produce a safer, more secure
nation. The data to obtain ID cards, as well as the cards themselves, can
be forged. This has already been demonstrated by the terrorists who laid
waste to the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on September 11th.
The choice between liberty and security is a false one. Choose liberty
and you’re just as secure. Choose "security" and you’re no
safer. Government officials simply want to be able to track your every
movement, purchase and doctor’s visit from cradle to grave.
Americans have to act quickly to inform the White House and the
Congress that this proposal must be rejected before we are all forced to
"show our papers."
Peyton Knight is the Associate Editor of The DeWeese Report and the
American Policy Center, a grassroots, activist think tank headquartered in
Warrenton, VA. The Center maintains an Internet site at
www.americanpolicy.org.
