By Shane Smith

Why, two decades after its passage, is the REAL ID Act finally being enforced? Authored by the same man who wrote the liberty-destroying Patriot Act, passed into law amid the hysteria of the living nightmare that was the War on Terror, why has this relic of that hideous era not been scrapped years ago? We’ve gotten along just fine for twenty years without it, and it’s obvious after those two decades that there is no dire need of it. Yet, law-abiding American citizens are being strong-armed into submitting to one of the pieces of legislation most destructive to freedom and privacy of the Bush era.

Kristi Noem, Trump-appointed head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), recently released a public announcement that REAL ID would be required to board domestic flights and to enter federal buildings beginning on May 7th. In the short video clip, Noem states that REAL ID “prevents fraud and enhances national security,” while chiding us to “do your part and to protect our country.” I’m sorry, what? These Bush-era talking points ring hollow now. No one is buying the notion that a national ID card is something that we are in dire need of. And if we’ve learned anything from the hideous Bush years, it’s that powers granted to government to fight terrorism often end up being used against American citizens.

Imagine how the federal government would have used REAL ID on January 6th protestors, or COVID dissidents, or the unvaccinated. Remember, there is no limit to what information the DHS can require to be placed in the REAL ID database. This is an insane and inexcusable bestowal of power upon the DHS director. But while new requirements, called “Official Purposes,” for REAL ID compliance are at the discretion of DHS, it would require a majority vote in the Senate, House, and a Presidential signature to remove them.

Here is the definition of “Official Purpose” as defined by the REAL ID Act itself: “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.” (emphasis mine)

This is a recklessly open-ended definition, and no bureaucrat should ever wield this amount of power in our allegedly free nation. As written, this means that any DHS director from now on could concoct any official purpose they desired, and we would be forced to comply. This could include vaccine records, political affiliations, gun ownership, biometrics, et cetera. REAL ID could just as easily be required to buy guns and ammo, apply for a job or a loan, buy a car, or move about as a functioning member of society. Failure to comply with the increasing requirements would mean your instant digital ostracism from society.

A prudent thought experiment we should use before blindly supporting a piece of legislation, or failing to oppose one, is this: would we be fine with our political opponents wielding this power? Imagine the horrors of the Biden era. What would he and his allies have done with it? Would we have opposed it more vigorously had he won a second term?

Conservatives, for the most part, are complacent in the face of REAL ID. It looks almost identical to the driver’s licenses that we’ve always used, and we obey the law, so what do we have to fear? We seem to be backpedaling straight into the authoritarian national security state that Constitutional conservatives have opposed vigorously since the early 2000’s. But our intense preoccupation with electing Trump, and subsequent celebration of his victory, has drawn our attention away from threats to liberty that remain even when our candidates win office. To oppose REAL ID and other liberty-destroying measures is now seen as opposition to Trump and his agenda. This is incredibly dangerous, and the ridiculous and superficial “red vs blue” political football game threatens the unending fight to push back the consolidation of federal power over our lives.

We must remember the policy fights that do not cleanly adhere to Left vs. Right political disputes. We must stand apart from electoral politics in order to soberly judge each policy proposal on its own merits and imagine what would happen if a President Michelle or Newsom wielded those powers. Because, eventually, they will.

This is why we shouldn’t be so eager to give Trump’s administration everything it wants, forgetting that once he’s out of office, a real authoritarian could follow him into office and begin wielding this power with unchecked enthusiasm.

A national ID card, with unchecked power granted to the Department of Homeland Security, gives to the federal government total control over our lives. Only once it is fully in place will we see its true potential as a means of surveillance and control over the lives of the law-abiding. Oklahoma and many other states resisted it for years, but over time, have folded, and now we’ve reached the end of the line. What is the path forward, and is our current Congress capable of repealing anything at all, much less a piece of legislation that would strip the bureaucracy of a power it has desired for decades?

We are in dire need of a philosophical awakening in this country to the role that government plays in our lives. Until then, authoritarian legislation will pass unhindered, and we’ll continue to bequeath to our children and grandchildren an America a little less free and prosperous than we found it.

Shane Smith is a pro-liberty writer based in Norman, Oklahoma. He blogs at: RepublicReborn.com