The Real ID Act: A Catastrophe in the Making

© 2012 by Dallas Denny

I felt compelled to write this essay because of the effect of the Real ID Act upon a friend. She has had a driver's license here in Georgia since the 1970s. When she went to the DMV last week she was turned away because she could not produce a birth certificate. Unless she can locate a copy and copies of two divorce decrees she no longer has to show changes to her name, she will most likely lose the right to drive a motor vehicle.

Millions of Americans don't have birth certificates -- some because they were not in general use when they were born; some because they were born in rural locations without registration; some because the hospitals or courthouses that held their records burned or were swept away in floods; and some because they just haven't kept up with them.

Except when applying for a passport the driver's licenses of the 50 states have served as the primary means of identification in our society. The Real ID act changes that. It retroactively turns native-born American citizens into enemy aliens until and unless they can produce the array of documents necessary to establish their validity in the eyes of the government of the United States. Those who cannot get certified will not be able to drive, enter Federal buildings, or fly as airline passengers.

The Obama Administration opposes the Real ID act. So do I. And I hope you do, too.

The Real ID Act

A Catastrophe in the Making

In 2005, after minimal debate, the U.S. Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law the Real ID Act of 2005. This law changes Federal law in regard to state driver’s license and identification cards, requiring the various states to comply with rigorous new standards. Those wishing to drive or carry a state-issued identification card will be required to produce a birth certificate, proof of citizenship or resident alien status, social security number, address, and an ID that includes full legal name and birth date. Every driver in the United States -- all 250 million of us -- will be required to make an in-person visit to their state’s Department of Motor Vehicles.

Super Trooper

Back in June The National Memo published this report of witnesses who say that during his college days at Stanford University Mitt Romney had a Michigan state trooper's uniform in his dorm. His dorm mates say he told them he would dress up in it and pull over drivers.

So recalls Robin Madden, who had also just arrived as a freshman, the startling incident began when Romney called him and two or three other residents into his room, saying, “Come up, I want to show you something.” When they entered Romney’s room, “and laid out on his bed was a Michigan State Trooper’s uniform.” 

Madden, a native Texan who graduated from Stanford in 1970 and went on to become a successful television producer and writer, has never forgotten that strange moment, which he has recounted to friends over the years as he observed his former classmate’s political ascent. The National Memo learned of the incident from a longtime Madden friend to whom he had mentioned it years ago.

Said Madden in a recent interview, “He told us that he had gotten the uniform from his father,” George Romney, then the Governor of Michigan, whose security detail was staffed by uniformed troopers. “He told us that he was using it to pull over drivers on the road. He also had a red flashing light that he would attach to the top of his white Rambler.”

If true-- and it very possibly is true-- it's but one more example of a life characterized by bullying.

More on bullying in the next post.