[Tench_Coxe]

"Pervasively requiring ID in a society destroys the individual, as one's social self becomes a piece of paper granted - and revoked - at the whim of a bureaucrat."

You know, for all the so-called 'conservatives' who like this idea, here's a little blurb I remember:

"I wish to remind Republicans that this idea first surfaced in a Reagan cabinet meeting in 1981. Then Attorney General William French Smith argued that a perfectly harmless i.d. card system would be necessary to reduce illegal immigration. A second cabinet member asked why not tattoo a number on each American's forearm. According to Martin Anderson, the White House domestic policy adviser at the time, Reagan blurted out: "My god, that's the mark of the beast." Anderson reports "that was the end of the national identification card" during the Reagan years. But bad ideas never die in Washington; they wait for another day."

Source here (and elsewhere): National ID

[af_vet_rr]

"I wish to remind Republicans that this idea first surfaced in a Reagan cabinet meeting in 1981. Then Attorney General William French Smith argued that a perfectly harmless i.d. card system would be necessary to reduce illegal immigration. A second cabinet member asked why not tattoo a number on each American's forearm. According to Martin Anderson, the White House domestic policy adviser at the time, Reagan blurted out: "My god, that's the mark of the beast." Anderson reports "that was the end of the national identification card" during the Reagan years. But bad ideas never die in Washington; they wait for another day."

Great quote, and you know, the comment about the bad ideas never die in Washington - much of the PATRIOT Act was created during the Clinton years. If he had tried to float it then, Republicans would have went nuts.

Regardless of that, we are headed towards a papers please society. I can't see anybody challenging it on a national level, because we are going so slow that it's not that noticeable, it's being implemented by a party that would normally be against such a thing, and because the Cold War is over (which provided a great contrast to freedom-lovers).