The Real ID program is more dangerous than we realize

Over at Orcinus, Sara quotes Trefayne on recognizing the dangers of such a program:

There are plenty of U.S. fascists, proto-fascists, and pseudo-fascists who are not currently in office. If these private authoritarian forces ever came to greater power (for example, by election, appointment, or the creation of private intelligence agencies, private armies, or paramilitaries), I expect that they wouldn't mind having access to very-detailed databases and mandatory "papers" that would be even more invasive than Real ID. Heck, how do we keep the currently-recorded data from being leaked to these folks now?

Looking at a person's personal data can help a political street-thug or budding dictator identify the opposition. Remember, they don't have to kill us all. As Ann Coulter pointed out, you only need to harm a few to intimidate the rest.

You could use various forms of identification to tag immigrants, dissidents, particular ethnic groups, former Gulag prisoners, and other "risk groups". (see here) Deny them jobs and bank accounts, limit their residence and travel to certain areas (see here), force them to pay arbitrary spot-fines that no one else has to pay, etcetera. Basically make them so miserable they have to learn their "place" or leave the Mother-/Father-/Homeland. That is, of course, if they are allowed to.

(Remember that passports were revived around World War One to keep potential soldiers and other useful people from leaving their home countries. Even now you can't emigrate from the United States without a letter of clearance from the FBI. What if they say, "No, he's more of a threat to The Leader if he can speak freely abroad. We'll keep him here, thanks.")

Don't think there are any "populists" who would love to have this kind of power? Think again:
Jim Gilchrist
Bo Gritz
Patrick Buchanan
Samuel Francis
Lyndon LaRouche

Hey, while we're at it, let's add RFID chips to each card, so you can scan people from a few feet away. It makes it easier for the political beat-cops to find the right people to harrass in the street. (see here).

You could mine the data to see who belongs to the right churches. In fact, you could put a little code or symbol on the card to indicate what someone's religion is. Connect the travel records with the spending profile to see who is showing up at church AND financially supporting it.

R.J. Rushdoony
Gary North

You could indicate the person's race and religion on the card or in the database. Who needs yellow stars or colored triangles? The card will tell you how (or if) to treat potential customers and subjects, er, citizens.

Tom Metzger
William L. Pierce
David Duke
Willis Carto
Don Black

Ultimately, this kind of snooping makes it easier to figure out who to kill or intimidate.

Timothy McVeigh
Eric Rudolph
William Krar
Demetrius Van Crocker

If you want to catch up with what this blog is about, read Dave Neiwert's "The Rise of Pseudo Fascism" (see here). Fascist tendencies are a problem in this country, a genuine threat, and not one limited to the Cheney Regime. (And those Democrats you mentioned may be fools, but I don't think they're fascists.) If you really do believe in liberty _for everyone_ (and no special rights for men, for whites, for straight people, for Christians, etcetera) we'll be happy to have you join us in our fight against the authoritarian and totalitarian forces in our midst.

Update: Sara notes:

Via Hunter at Random, we learn that Montana's joined the fight against Real ID. Yesterday, their legislature voted -- almost unanimously -- in favor of two bills that expressed the state's intention to defy the act.

[snip]

Thomas Frank, reporting in USA Today, notes that six other states -- Hawaii, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Vermont and Washington -- also have active bills that will be coming up for votes soon. He quotes Barry Steinhardt of the ACLU, who thinks that "If one state says no, or another state follows Maine, the whole house of cards collapses" -- and points out that having a Democratic Congress makes that more likely, since the Democrats of the 109th (to their credit) didn't give the bill much support the first time around.