Mandated IDs and Consequence of Enumeration

While Libertarian Presidential Candidate, Bob Barr is vocal about his wishes to halt Real ID implementation, he added that keeping the welfare recipients from voting was on his list of priorities. The cognitive dissonance and conflicts between the two ideas are not necessarily obvious. Those affirming the latter, may slip a noose around their own necks if Real ID is given the go ahead for its disenfranchising power.

An enacted Real ID manifests not just as complete exposure of US citizen's privacy and identity keys or as an irrelevant immigration solution, but as a potent voter disenfranchisement tool. This Spring the Supreme Court upheld Indiana's demand for photo ID as a pre-requisite to vote.  If more states mimic this legislation, ID will predicate your right to vote.

Those at the bottom of the economic ladder, those booted unintentionally "off the grid" due to mental illness or due to imprisonment often do not have immediate access to their "breeder documents"- a birth certificate or Social Security card- qualifying them for ID.  As identity trends persist, more people without immediate access to key identity documents find themselves outside of resources. They may also find themselves outside of the law for failure to provide identity documents on demand for registration, probation or payment of fines.

In Michael Mechanic's, IDENTITY THEFT article, Mother Jones reports repercussions for those without access to proper identity documents.

FOR NEW PAROLEE'S hoping to stay out of prison for good, scoring public assistance is crucial.  But few consider this obstacle: "You can't get ID in this society anymore if you don't have ID,"  says Amy Blank, a researcher at Rutgers University.  "If you wanta birth certificate, you need a driver's license. If you want a driver's license, you have to have a birth certificate and a Social Security card.  And to get a Social Security card, you have to have a driver's license. It's this crazy cycle."

For those with proper ID, squarely on the right side of the law with financial ducks in a row, still more government mandated  hoop-jumping exercises are ahead.  Among the hotly opposed tenets of the Real ID Act is a mandate to submit citizenship documents to local DMV databases in order to receive a valid driver's license or ID.  In essence, the database will be a national catalog of identity documentation.  

The Consequences of Enumeration 

VIDEO: IBM & The Holocaust

 

Government cataloging or enumeration of a nation based on identity, may be used for profiling people groups based on aspects of race, religion, locale and consumer habits. Consequenses for enumeration are documented in Edwin Black's book, IBM & The Holocaust.