I still have to be convinced about what is so horrible about a national ID card. I already have a CA driver's license and a US passport.
Well. You live in California. I live in New Hampshire. As Twain said through Huck Finn, "There's some people, that if they don't already know, you just can't tell them."
Ask the British. Did you miss that bit about the government losing disks containing all the personal data on
25 million people last year?
And if there's an issue with your ID, right now, you can go to the local DMV, which is enough of a headache. Do you want to have to write to (email? no, no, LETTER) to someone in D.C. and not get an answer, maybe a form letter for the wrong problem six months later?
Some minor functionary edited the wrong cell on an ancient spreadsheet on a beigebox in a cubefarm, and doesn't care, because it's time to go home. As a result, you're now unable to fly, sorry, you get stopped at checkin as a Threat. How long will that take to get fixed?
That, and ID theft will happen...oh, it will happen. And it will be a lot worse if your RealID is stolen, likely via, as I said, insiders selling data and "legit fake" copies to third parties.. Just TRY to get that fixed quickly. Good luck getting to travel or getting a loan or getting, well...anything in the meantime.
Oh, and if someone does something
naughty with your copied ID, the next time you get stopped for a minor traffic infraction..."Why, why is Mister Officer bellowing at me to get out of the car and get on the ground? Don't taze me! Hey!"
The bigger goverment gets, the further away you are from the things controlling your life, the more screwed up things can be.