After 9/11, the Bush administration began working on the implementation of a national ID. Its stated purpose was to assist national security agencies in better enabling them to identify terrorists. Though I fail to see how an ID will help them identify terrorists when many attacks in the U.S. are committed by Americans. Nonetheless, the result was a project supported by the conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, called the REAL ID Act.

Though the deadline for states to comply has been extended in the past, there is no reason to believe that it will be extended again. About half of the states are already in compliance, and they just happen to be red states. As of January 22, 2018, you will have to have one of these IDs. To obtain this new federal ID, you will need:

• a valid photo ID or non-photo ID that shows your full legal name and birth date
• your social security card
• your birth certificate
• proof of citizenship (it does not say what this means or why it is needed)
• two forms of proof of residence such as a utility bill and phone bill

Your state is then required by law to digitally photocopy all of the above documents and attach them to your file. This file is then legally required to be shared with all other states and the federal government to include all government agencies.

Anything that requires a photo ID will require this federal ID. That means you will need one to drive, to fly, obtain a marriage license, to fish, hunt, buy a gun, to rent a car, a hotel room, to buy a cell phone, open a bank account, to apply for a job, buy cold medicine and other prescriptions, go to the hospital, adopt, enroll your kid in school, visit a military base and to visit your representative’s office in D.C. You will also be unable to apply for welfare, food stamps, unemployment, medicaid, medicare or social security without obtaining this new ID.

The REAL ID Act is an unfunded law. This means that states will be required to foot the bill for changing all IDs to federal IDs. And since states are funded by taxpayers, you will have to pay higher fees for those new licenses and ID cards. If you are like me, you will also have to pay for this new ID even though your current one is not expired.

For the most part, the new IDs will look similar to your old one and contain the same information. The difference is in the bar code. All your information will be stored in this bar code to include every time it was swiped and where. The federal government will know every time you rent a hotel room, where and for how long. They will know if you own guns, how many and of what type. The federal government will know what type of meds you take and why. They will be able to track your purchases and movements each and every day.

The real purpose of the REAL ID Act:

At the moment, feds are claiming they won’t be used for voting, but then why collect information on your citizenship if it’s not going to be used for voting purposes? And like I said, most terrorist attacks in the U.S. have been committed by U.S. citizens. Make no mistake, this is one of the main purposes of this federal ID. It was put forth by the party that claims to want less government, less regulations and red tape. But that is only for their businesses and not for citizens. When it comes to voters, the Republican Party and The Heritage Foundation have long touted that less voters means more republicans win.

Mark my words, this is how they will purge voter rolls in 2018 and 2020. The 2018 midterms are in November so this ID could be required for that election. The poor, elderly, and minority voters will not be allowed to vote because they could not obtain these new federal IDs. All this time, we thought the closing of DMV centers in black and poor districts was to make it hard to register to vote. That may have been a side benefit, but the actual purpose was to make it as difficult as possible to obtain these new IDs that will be required to vote.

Welcome to the United States of Not So Free After All.

To see if your state has yet complied, go to https://www.dhs.gov/real-id-enforcement-brief.

Originally published at The Liberal Yell