Who Needs ID Anyway?

For ordinary Americans the flap over illegal aliens and drivers licenses is a no-brainer.  Nobody should get a drivers license or state ID unless they can prove their bona fides.

It’s hard therefore to figure out why presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was waffling about drivers licenses for illegal aliens in New York State at the presidential debate earlier this week.  Writes John Fund:

At first she seemed to endorse the idea, then claimed, "I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it."

In case you are wondering what the flap is about,  Fund has the answer.  It’s about making it easier to vote.

Remember the Motor Voter bill back in 1993?  It was a Clinton wheeze.

It required all states to offer voter registration to anyone getting a driver’s license. When renewing a drivers license you simply fill out a form and check a box stating that you are a citizen; you are then registered to vote and in most states do not have to show any ID to vote.

That sort of loosey-goosey attitude towards the law brings back the thrill of the Clinton years.  Presumably it arises because Democratic leaders feel that many of their rank-and-file supporters are not the kind of people who proactively get registered to vote when they move.

Maybe they get riled up by a campaign, or maybe they get up on election day and decide to vote.  Either way, the Clintons wanted them to be able to vote.  And why not catch them when they go by the DMV to get their drivers license renewed?

(But, these days, do Democratic voters even bother to get a drivers license?)

The answer is that a loosey-goosey system like Motor Voter is an invitation to voter fraud.

The answer is that 80 percent of Americans want photo ID at the polling place.

The answer is that 8 of the 19 9/11 hijackers had registered as voters.

The question we might all ask Mrs Clinton and Gov. Spitzer of New York is this.

If you guys want to be so loosey-goosey about drivers licenses and voter ID, why bother about ID at all?  Let anyone drive.  Let anyone vote.  It’s the American thing to do.

And let’s save some money by laying off all those unimportant DMV clerks.  Then we can spend they money on programs that help people.