I hate ID cards
From an editorial in Monday's Times. Reasons we should think seriously about national ID cards, by Bill T. Asshole (spelled Douglas McGray). I'm gonna do my best azulita impersonation and break it down.
HEALTH CARE Today, if you go to the emergency room, your medical history is whatever you remember to tell your doctor. Health care reformers long to build an electronic health database so medical records can follow patients wherever they go. Congress passed legislation in 1996 to safeguard just such a database. A national ID network could provide the backbone, and the security.
OK. Where to start. What this does not say but is implicit in the use of the emergency room scenario is that you would be carrying your ID card around with you at all times. Otherwise why would you have it "in an emergency" more than any other piece of ID? No. What this actually means is that there will be a law that you will be required to carry this ID card with you at all times. Which might be useful in an emergency, but then again, hey, a right to privacy might be useful in, like, life.
VOTER EMPOWERMENT In 2004, Republican Party officials sent thousands of volunteers to challenge voters at the polls. They claimed Democrats were registering felons, illegal immigrants and people with fake names. Democrats said Republicans were trying to discourage voting in Democratic-leaning counties. Enough already: a national ID could replace voter registration bureaucracy and speed all citizens to the polls.
Riiiiight. I bet they won't disenfranchise black voters at all if we have a national ID card. In fact, since we'll all have cards, we'll all be the same. Racism itself could be eradicated. Also, um, aren't voting regulations set by states? I just have this feeling that states may not want to turn that power over to the federal government.
POVERTY Without a stable address or the cash to pay registration fees, the homeless struggle to get a valid photo ID. Even the working poor can find themselves without ID if a few parking tickets hit at the wrong time, and their drivers' licenses are suspended. A national ID would make it easier for the now officially anonymous to claim benefits, apply for work, get health care, cash a check, enter a government building or open a savings account.
Dude. I have this degree in political science, right? And another in urban studies? And I am totally realizing what an idiot I am. I so wasted my money because I did not even have any idea that the solution to poverty is a national ID. Does Jesse Jackson know about this?
Also. When your license gets suspended they don't take it away from you. Deputy Sachs does not show up at your door to hold onto it until you pay all your tickets. You can still use it for ID purposes. Also. I don't know about other states, but the Great State of New York provides a benefit card for the claiming of benefits. Also. Every state has this little thing called a non-driver ID. You get it from the DMV if you don't drive. It's just as good as a driver's license, but usually cheaper. If you were really concerned about ID for the poor, you would just subsidize non-driver IDs. Except what's stopping the homeless from getting ID is not the impossibility of raising $35 for an ID, but the lack of an address. So a national ID wouldn't have an address on it? Would it have your national ID number, and that would be enough? So it would have to be a permanent number that would follow you. From birth, maybe? Wow, that totally sounds like the world I want to live in!
OK, part 2 tomorrow (if I get around to it). Look forward to how a national ID will fix education, social welfare and immigration!
HEALTH CARE Today, if you go to the emergency room, your medical history is whatever you remember to tell your doctor. Health care reformers long to build an electronic health database so medical records can follow patients wherever they go. Congress passed legislation in 1996 to safeguard just such a database. A national ID network could provide the backbone, and the security.
OK. Where to start. What this does not say but is implicit in the use of the emergency room scenario is that you would be carrying your ID card around with you at all times. Otherwise why would you have it "in an emergency" more than any other piece of ID? No. What this actually means is that there will be a law that you will be required to carry this ID card with you at all times. Which might be useful in an emergency, but then again, hey, a right to privacy might be useful in, like, life.
VOTER EMPOWERMENT In 2004, Republican Party officials sent thousands of volunteers to challenge voters at the polls. They claimed Democrats were registering felons, illegal immigrants and people with fake names. Democrats said Republicans were trying to discourage voting in Democratic-leaning counties. Enough already: a national ID could replace voter registration bureaucracy and speed all citizens to the polls.
Riiiiight. I bet they won't disenfranchise black voters at all if we have a national ID card. In fact, since we'll all have cards, we'll all be the same. Racism itself could be eradicated. Also, um, aren't voting regulations set by states? I just have this feeling that states may not want to turn that power over to the federal government.
POVERTY Without a stable address or the cash to pay registration fees, the homeless struggle to get a valid photo ID. Even the working poor can find themselves without ID if a few parking tickets hit at the wrong time, and their drivers' licenses are suspended. A national ID would make it easier for the now officially anonymous to claim benefits, apply for work, get health care, cash a check, enter a government building or open a savings account.
Dude. I have this degree in political science, right? And another in urban studies? And I am totally realizing what an idiot I am. I so wasted my money because I did not even have any idea that the solution to poverty is a national ID. Does Jesse Jackson know about this?
Also. When your license gets suspended they don't take it away from you. Deputy Sachs does not show up at your door to hold onto it until you pay all your tickets. You can still use it for ID purposes. Also. I don't know about other states, but the Great State of New York provides a benefit card for the claiming of benefits. Also. Every state has this little thing called a non-driver ID. You get it from the DMV if you don't drive. It's just as good as a driver's license, but usually cheaper. If you were really concerned about ID for the poor, you would just subsidize non-driver IDs. Except what's stopping the homeless from getting ID is not the impossibility of raising $35 for an ID, but the lack of an address. So a national ID wouldn't have an address on it? Would it have your national ID number, and that would be enough? So it would have to be a permanent number that would follow you. From birth, maybe? Wow, that totally sounds like the world I want to live in!
OK, part 2 tomorrow (if I get around to it). Look forward to how a national ID will fix education, social welfare and immigration!
posted by chiniqua at 9:54 PM
1 Comments:
I totally agree with you about the ridiculousness of this National ID shenanagans. In high school they made us wear ID's because it "reduced violence." Maybe National ID cards will reduce violence and crime too! I can't wait!
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