The REAL ID Act

On May 10, 2005 Congress passed the REAL ID Act. This law imposes a national identification system on the American people for the first time. We are promised increased security in return but I believe this is a dangerous illusion. The larger government becomes the more power it has and the greater the potential for the abuse of that power. This is especially important as we face the possibility of a Hillary Clinton administration.

The REAL ID Act is a bad law passed under false pretenses. It was rejected three separate times by the U.S. Senate and was only passed because it was added to a larger bill containing disaster relief and funding for Iraq. Most in the Senate didn't want it and I believe the American people would not want it either if they understood how it could be used by an administration determined to maintain power; the names Bill and Hillary Clinton come to mind. Incredibly, it was a Republican majority leadership in Congress at the time that imposed it on us; nonetheless, we now we have to do all we can to get it repealed.

The REAL ID Act creates a centralized federal database of personal information about all Americans. Decisions about the exact nature and scope of this program will be made by unelected bureaucrats in the Executive Branch. It seems inevitable that biometric information and electronic tracking tags will be included at some point. No one intends a bad use for this system today, but it is altogether too possible that that it will be used in bad ways in the future.

We are promised increased personal security but we are actually laying a new foundation toward the creation of a future police state. History has shown that those who would trade freedom for unrestricted security deserve neither, and will have neither.

There are many good arguments that can be made against REAL ID, but they all reduce to one overpowering truth. Some people who will succeed to the presidency will be unscrupulous in their exercise of power. Please remember that Bill Clinton had over 600 FBI files to use in attacking, penalizing or intimidating opponents. The more information government has the more damage it can do to us. In all other areas the more power government has the less it seems able to accomplish, but not when it comes to limiting our freedom. Big Government doesn't work but it has the ability to manipulate what we do or are able to freely do. We need a small government that does not have a massive new federal identification system.

Don’t be fooled by cries for more security as a cover for another agenda; we definitely do want and need protection against Islam and its murderous followers but we do not need to risk adding another controlling force to have that; there are many other ways we can add to our protection. We should be focusing our attention on those among us that want to tie the hands of our military and legitimate security agencies by forcing an unrealistic political correctness on them. Acting in our own self interests and ignoring world opinion is the way to go to protect our country.