Leaving aside the politics of a true national ID card, even if there were a national ID card which went beyond a social security card (which many people don't have a physical copy of), there is absolutely no way that the federal government is going to regulate driver's licenses. And that was the issue here.
Of course, we also have a national ID in the form of passports, but a lot of people don't have one.
Passports can’t double as ID because that’d conflict with the primary purpose of passports, passing through borders.
A national ID would presumably be available, or obligatory, to everyone. But countries can and do deny passports or rescind them < the passport is a letter asking the govt of a foreign country to let its citizen in. Sometimes you don’t want a citizen to leave or vouch for him.
Anyways all states I’ve lived in have IDs that are solely IDs
I suppose a happy medium would be making passports much easier to get. Make them completely free to apply for, simplify the paperwork and start automatically printing passports for newborns.
This doesn't solve the issue of people lacking a drivers license but might solve a few others along the way.
> Of course, we also have a national ID in the form of passports, but a lot of people don't have one.
Passports should be issued to citizens free of charge, and could carry driving endorsements as physical and digital metadata (I don't suggest that harmonizing driving credentialing and administration across all 50 states and other US territories is an enormous undertaking, just one that should be done).
> ... there is absolutely no way that the federal government is going to regulate driver's licenses.
While true, it’s also hilarious as they do indirectly regulate speed limits, road composition, vehicle safety features, and emission standards. So basically everything except the person operating the vehicle.
Very indirect. They have requirements for driver's licenses being used as IDs for federal purposes. (Which is actually not unreasonable although we got by without doing so for many years.)
The issue of course is that their driver's license is the only government-issued photo ID they possess so if they want to fly or enter a federal building without a driver's license, they would need to get a federal ID such as a passport issued which has both monetary and time costs. (And isn't available for everyone.)
Of course, we also have a national ID in the form of passports, but a lot of people don't have one.