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License to Drive a Recreational Vehicle

A few days ago, McQ blasted Eliot Spitzer (Democrat, Governor of New York State) for his plans to allow New York’s approximately one million illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. It has been reported that Republicans in the NY State Senate think the plan will lead to another 9/11.

Among McQ’s comments:

I have no idea if it would or wouldn't lead to another 9/11, but it is hard to argue that it isn't probable that the licenses could be used for other than intended uses. i.e. driving. To call his idea "sound policy" seems ludicrious. The potential for fraud seems unlimited.

All other thoughts aside, this is the home run point. This struck me as hysterically funny. Of the last 20 times I was asked for my driver’s license, exactly one of them was driving related. So in the comments section I wrote a reply:

Maybe that’s the point... the intended use is just for driving. What we need is a separate form of photo ID for everything we currently use drivers’ licenses for. A drinking license/ID. An airline passenger license/ID. A verifying-the-name-on-your-credit-card license/ID.

I call it "original intent". A driver’s license is not a living, breathing document that needs to be interpreted by activists!

Today, Jim Harper (director of information policy studies at The Cato Institute) writes:

Governor Elliot Spitzer has taken a sensible approach -- treating his state's driver's license as simply that: a license to drive.

The part that cracks me up is that I know this comes across as a ludicrous position to the average American. Or at least, to the average person I know. Harper continues:

It's a welcome -- and somewhat surprising -- move, to see a Democrat and law-and-order-type former attorney general resist mission creep in a state bureau and hold fast to the federal system devised in the constitution. But he's done the right thing. Thanks most recently to Governor Spitzer, and to state leaders from across the ideological spectrum, REAL ID is teetering on the brink of death. But Congress has yet to fully acknowledge its error. And advocates for a national ID, and all the surveillance that comes with it, will not give up without a fight.

I think Harper may be missing a bigger picture with this – something I alluded to in my comment at QandO. If Spitzer’s plan were to go through, having a valid NY State driver’s license would not be any indication of one’s citizenship. This would raise the level of alarm for authoritarians who demand a national ID. If a driver’s license is only good for driving, then we need something that would be good for determining who is old enough to drink, who is (maybe) safe to let on an airplane, and who was lucky enough to be born deserves to be here in the US, versus who’s a no good dirty below-minimum-wage worker potential al Qaeda terrorist.

Mark my words – Spitzer’s plan would breathe new life into those demanding a national identification card. At that point, I would have exactly one question to post to my movie loving friends (especially Rammage and Buckshot): Do you think they will let me live in Montana?