By J. Stark Davis of Logan County, Oklahoma
Some believe that government welfare benefits to the poor were created with good intentions, but they became a monster, nonetheless —destroying lives, marriages, and families, because they created dependency on Government, took away individual freedom, and gave a distant government control over the finances of the most vulnerable among us. We know that government healthcare for the poor was also done with stated ‘good’ intentions, but it became a monster—creating personal healthcare dependency on a remote massive bureaucracy, taking away personal freedom to control one’s own health care decisions, and increasing opportunities for medical malpractice and corruption due to a lack of government accountability. The stated ‘good’ intentions of using government to produce an ID system that is designed for international applications is another monster on the government’s operating table ready to be unleashed on the unsuspecting public.
With stated intentions to fight terrorism in 2005 the federal government passed a law requiring all Americans to be issued a federally approved national identification card. This required digital facial imaging that conformed to an international biometric format standard (REAL ID Act, March 1, 2007, Section 202(b)(5)). By 2008 the Department of Homeland Security had directed all states to honor the federal law and required them to issue REAL IDs for drivers licenses and state ID cards. There was immediate push-back. The majority of states either passed laws prohibiting compliance (25 states) or passed resolutions opposing REAL ID (12 states). Since then, the federal government has pressed on with it’s REAL ID requirements, and state governments have become more complacent.
The REAL ID Act requires that state identification card information with digital facial recognition be placed in motor vehicle databases. These databases are designed to be linked nationally for federal applications, but the destination of this information also includes international and foreign databases so international airlines can improve security. This is an easy sell to many Americans, but our international safety concerns can also be met with databases that are similar to our current federal criminal data system where those that meet probable cause standards are placed into lists on databases, rather than entire populations.
The majority of personal Drivers Licenses and state ID’s are not in conformance with the federal requirements, but this number is approaching 50% as more and more people get the REAL ID for fear that they will not be able to travel freely. The greater fear should be the dangers of what can happen if our personal identification information, including our physical location and other privacy information, falls into the hands of other governments that don’t share our values, and who are known enemies, or potential enemies, of the United States. If you are unconviced of this danger, just consider the damage that China did to Americans with COVID. The law still provides numerous other ID methods that can be used for travel, such as passports, so international digital IDs are not the only way of assuring safe international travel.
We may have good national security reasons for maintaining individual security standards for U.S citizens and others legally visiting the United States. For international travel we have a passport system that is in place that works well and has many built-in safeguards. What we should work hard to avoid is placing our private information in a digital format that is surrendered over to other nations who do not share our values of freedom and representative government. Giving private information that can be taken, manipulated, and compromised by bad actors in our own government, and nations who are against, us is a resurrection of the Frankenstein story—possibly good intentions but tragic, foreseeable results.
As to what a single county can do to manipulate a national digital ID system, consider the dangers of what has already been approved in France. French government leaders are boasting about their digital IDs, now available on their phones, that are scheduled to be used in municipal elections scheduled for March 2026. (1) We are well aware of the opportunities for election fraud that have occurred over the last 10 years, primarily in the battle-ground states, where government officials in this country have used electronic manipulation and other highly technical methods to change, erase, and add votes. Consider the opportunities for manipulation of the data if voter ID is placed on cell phones, and those phones could be used to actually cast votes.
The greater the opportunity for man to manipulate digital ID’s, the greater the opportunity for man to be tempted to exercise “god-like” power. This will not end well for people who have given in so quickly to digital IDs. Hindsight being what it is, people going forward will ask how could the surveillance state of the future have been allowed to happen? (2)
We must be aware that digital IDs advance the opportunity for governments to monitor and track individual movements of people without their knowledge. Such heavy-handed surveillance smacks of the dangers of police states, known to exist in communist countries. The U.S. Constitution has 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable searches, requiring probable cause and warrants before the government can interfere into people’s private spaces. The 5th Amendment has protections against taking life, liberty or property from people without due process. If these protections can be lost through digital IDs, especially when they can be passed on to other countries that don’t share our laws, then digital IDs that can be placed on phones and used in international settings are certainly not a good idea.
It is also important to note that millions of dollars are on the table to develop these technologies, and sell them to the government. In early 2003 Oklahoma signed a $12 million contract with Visage Technology to develop the digital drivers’ license. Before May of 2003 it was made known that Visage was involved in another profitable security contract with the United Arab Emirates to modernize their visa identification process. (3) Private companies and communities can gain from big government contracts that produce this technology, but that doesn’t make it right and wise.
In our current systems of identification, passwords are used to protect personal spaces and information. When those passwords are compromised, new passwords are created. In a biometric system relying on digital photos and fingerprints once those physical ID marks are compromised the data cannot be simply changed to create a new password, as biometric date, specific to each of us, is unchangeable. (4) This is yet another way our freedoms are restricted by Real ID, and our vulnerability is increased.
So when it comes to government issued digital ID’s that have international applications, and can end up on cell phones, the dangers of another government Frankenstein should come to mind. There may be good intentions, to “improve” security and efficiency, but we must think beyond the pragmatism, and consider the fundamental violations of rights that so quickly can be compromised, and the giving of our security and identities to foreign actors whose intent is not to make our lives better, but whose intent may be to destroy us. Does the government policy take away our freedoms? Does it increase government control over our lives? If the answers to these questions are “yes” and “yes,” then we probably have created another Frankenstein. We must be alert to the monster that can be released if we keep going down the road of digital, international IDs.
More about the author:
J. Stark Davis Attorney, Licensed in Oklahoma since 1990. LtCol, USAF (Ret/Res) 1983 Graduate of the USAF Academy, International Affairs Major. J.D. from Oklahoma City University M.P.A. from University of Oklahoma M.A. from Oklahoma Christian University
Footnotes:
(1) Marsha Borak, “France’s National Digital ID Scaling Up After Graduating From Pilot,” Biometric Update (Dec. 5, 2025), https://www.biometricupdate.com/202512/frances-national-digital-id-scaling-up-after-graduating-from-pilot (Dec. 8, 2025).
(2) “Surveillance USA Style,” Constitutional Alliance (Nov. 17, 2025), https://constitutionalalliance.org/surveillance-usa-style/ (Dec. 8, 2025).
(3) “Viisage Receives $12 million Award from the State of Oklahoma,” Findbiometrics.com (Feb. 18, 2003), http://www.findbiometrics.com/Pages/news_releases/news311.html (Dec. 9,2025)
(4) Pauline, “Are Biometric IDs Safeguarding Our Rights?” Constitutionium (March 20, 2025), https://constitutionium.com/are-biometric-ids-safeguarding-our-rights/ (Dec. 8, 2025).
Editor’s note:
The follow-up question is what can we do about all this? Well first of course is to be as informed as you can on the topic! Peggy Hall on Substack has written some great articles on biometric data collection and Real ID as well as Ron Paul and Senator Rand Paul. Senator Paul has a bill in progress to repeal Real ID.
Here are some links if you want to explore further:
https://peggyhall.substack.com/p/europes-new-biometric-border-control
https://peggyhall.substack.com/p/real-id-creates-digital-prison
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/ron-paul-real-id-is-phony-security
https://libertyconservativenews.substack.com/p/rand-paul-pushes-bill-to-repeal-real
We have several articles on flock cameras which are a very related topic here on OKGrassroots. Simply search on flock cameras to pop them up if interested in more information on that topic.
There are flyers being passed out in Oklahoma and they come from RefuseRealID.org where there is much more information on what can be done. Please share with friends and family. We are the resistance. If people will not comply, then the data collection will fail, but let’s save us all some money and end the invasion of privacy sooner than later!
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Original content OKGrassroots
