After all, many other countries have National ID programs that allow them to segregate citizens from non-citizens. To understand who is entitled to the rights set forth in each country's governing documents and laws. Also, who should be paying taxes. From a bureaucratic stand point, having a strong, trustworthy National ID system only makes sense.
Then why doesn't the United States, the most rootin'-ist, tootin'-ist country in the whole dang world, have something like this? Read on, intrepid ponderer!
There are a couple of answers to this question, much of them stemming from the founding of the country. Which means that the arguments closing in on 230 years old. That does not make them less valid, just well worn.
States Rights
Part of this has to do with who has the right to identify who. Is it the federal government or the individual states? After all, whoever controls the ID system also controls the access to it and can make those citizenship decisions and other things. They also gives them control over aspects of tax law, because everything comes back to money.
Because of the money side of things, this is probably the biggest reason that we don't have a National ID program. But there are other reasons. Reasons that are at least as valid. Maybe more so.
Authoritarianism
The ACLU has long argued against a National ID program. You can read the full details in that link, but it comes down to the belief that instituting such a program is a step towards the state getting a bit too much in your grill. With a National ID, they can track where you are, what you do, who you talk to.
I am very much against government knowing too much about individual citizens. I do not hold to the logic behind "If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear." That does not take into account how states change and what was once something that the state did not regulate suddenly becomes something that they do. See Hulu's "A Handmaid's Tale" and Amazon's "The Man in the High Castle" for more on this. So on that basis, I'm against a National ID.
Having said that, the NSA and other governmental agencies seem to have no trouble getting around this and are tracking everyone anyway. They have been called to the carpet several times on obtaining phone records and recording conversations with loose consent at best. But just because they have the information does not mean that we should be forced to give it to them.
Kind of Optional, Kind of Not
All of the above is a bit beside the point because we do have IDs in the United States. Driver's Licenses, Social Security Numbers, Birth Certificates, and Passports just to name a few. The difference is that all of them are at least nominally optional. But are they really?
It has to be hard to live in the US as an undocumented citizen. Without at least some of those IDs, the best jobs that you are going to get are the paid-under-the-table kind. It is illegal to drive (though that just means don't get caught), and public transport in rural and suburban areas is not great. You will get basic emergency medical care, but nothing more, and bumped to the bottom of the list.
Finally, even if you choose not to get a Driver's License or Passport or Military ID or Library Card, you will still be issued something. If you are born on US soil, you will have a Birth Certificate and a Social Security Number. As I argued last week, neither of those are particularly secure, but they are part of your paper trail.
Non-National ID
I do not believe that we need any more government mandated IDs. I do believe that we need an more secure, optional way to prove that we are who we are so that others, including governments, do not try and take advantage of us. Something that can change when each of us wants to change, but only when we want it to. Not our employers, not criminals, not banks or credit companies.
Certainly not governments.
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