I don't have a REAL ID–compliant driver's license and don't plan to get one. I figure if the federal government wants to implement internal passports in the U.S., which after 20 years of political and legal battles is now happening, we might as well be honest about it and use actual passports. So, from now on, I'll enter the secure areas of airports and federal buildings with my actual passport, which is good for travel both external and internal to the U.S. Or we could call REAL ID–compliant licenses, which must adhere to federal standards, "national ID cards." A little honesty is a good thing.

It Was Always a National ID Card

"The United States is getting a national ID card," security expert Bruce Schneier wrote in 2005 when the REAL ID Act was passed. "The REAL ID Act … establishes uniform standards for state driver's licenses, effectively creating a national ID card. It's a bad idea, and is going to make us all less safe."

The federal government denies that REAL ID means we all now have to carry national identification cards. Sort of. In 2007, after the REAL ID Act had been enacted but in the midst of state refusal to implement the law and popular opposition, then-Sen. Lamar Alexander (R–Tenn.) conceded the nature of the beast. "It may be that we need a national identification card," he commented on the floor of the Senate. "I've always been opposed to that. We live in a different era now."

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) still denies that standardized identification documents required by the U.S. government for domestic air travel and entrance to federal facilities are national ID.

"REAL ID is a national set of standards, not a national identification card," DHS insists in a FAQ. "REAL ID does not create a federal database of driver license information. Each jurisdiction continues to issue its own unique license, maintains its own records, and controls who gets access to those records and under what circumstances."

That's true-ish, but beside the point. The REAL ID Act set minimum standards for the information contained in an identification card, the conditions (such as citizenship or legal residency) qualifying a person to receive a card, and for the documentation that must be presented for an application. The law also prescribes that information be presented on identification cards in "a common machine-readable technology, with defined minimum data elements." That common technology is helpful since the law also requires that ID issuers "provide electronic access to all other States to information." Data is mostly shared through the State-to-State Verification Service, which links those different databases.

Everything besides that is just cosmetic. That includes the names of issuing states, color schemes, and background imagery. They may make ID cards look different from issuing state to issuing state, but they're all interchangeable, with shareable data.