Please read Section 201(3)-(4) of the Real ID Act:
(3) OFFICIAL PURPOSE- The term ‘official purpose’ includes but is not limited to accessing Federal facilities, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, entering nuclear power plants, and any other purposes that the Secretary shall determine.
(4) SECRETARY- The term ‘Secretary’ means the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Source: https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/real-id-act-text.pdf
In other words, the Secretary of Homeland Security has unilateral authority to expand the uses of real IDs. In their 2008 rule, DHS even doubled down:
“DHS does not agree that it must seek the approval of Congress as a prerequisite to changing the definition in the future (except of course to remove one of the three statutorily-mandated official purposes) as § 201(3) of the Act gives discretion to the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine other purposes.”
That could include voting, accessing medical care, etc. Do you trust Kristi Noem with this power? Do you trust every future secretary with this power?
If not, I urge you to not get a real id if you don’t have one, or turn in your real id for a state one if you do have one, and instead get a passport. The DHS cannot enforce anything if the majority of Americans refuse to get real ids. Let us not just bow down to a national id that invades our privacy and could be used to control us.
That ship has sailed. Some states have been issuing them since 2012. Multiple political leaders from both sides opposed it: both Clintons, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Obama. And advocacy groups on both sides opposed it: guns rights activist to immigrant rights activists to domestic violence aid groups. Too little, too late to swim against the post-9/11 security theater that George W Bush used to speedrun introducing so many bad things.
And the “what ifs” you presented are far from the worst they can do with it
“are far from the worst they can do”
I beg to differ. First, you should know there are plans to make real ids digital, possibly placed on your phone, and real-time and remotely accessible according to AAMVA testimony: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/HM/HM07/20231205/116640/HHRG-118-HM07-Wstate-GrossmanI-20231205.pdf
Now suppose that real ids are digital and required for medical care. Now, what’s gonna happen if you say something, or attend a protest etc., that the government or corporations don’t like? Well, in real time you will be denied your real id and consequently be unable to receive medical care.
This won’t happen today or even this decade. Right now they’re laying the groundwork for implementing this in maybe 20 years. That’s why we must fight back NOW.
Got mine forever ago because of the “you cannot fly without one” garbage.
You do not need a real id to fly. See here for a list of acceptable ids for TSA: https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/identification
30 something me was a goddamn idiot. 40 something me is a goddamn idiot but less so.
Thank you Caboose.