By Mark David Blum, Esq.

Ours was once a Nation comprised of individual political entities known as ‘States’. I live in one of those called ‘New York’. The concept that our Nation is an association of different countries united for common defense and welfare has largely faded into oblivion. It has become apparent that the United States of America has become a single political entity and the States are but political subdivisions of the larger whole.

The beginning of the end of the United States started with Abraham Lincoln and ends now with George Bush. When back in the mid 1800s, some of the states, through lawful process, opted to leave the union, the Republican Abraham Lincoln stepped up and attacked. In one fell swoop, that first Republican changed our nation from a voluntary association of independent ‘States’ to a more mafia-esque organization where once you join you can never leave. More importantly, Lincoln made the first moves in what has now become a National Government with States being mere status symbols instead of independent entities.

Two years ago, the United States Supreme Court dashed our Ship of State against the Rocks of meaninglessness. Our once proud and central Constitution was completely set aside on the whims of a right wing conservative majority of the Court; each of whom abandoned their basic core principles and opted instead to fundamentally restructure our system of checks and balances.

Central to our constitutional history is the premise that the Founding Document guarantees to all Americans, born and naturalized, certain basic rights and freedoms. It is the responsibility of the Federal Executive and Judiciary to see that these basic laws and protections are available to every American citizen.

Likewise a vital plank of our constitutional republic is the understanding that while we are all American citizens, we are likewise citizens of our respective States and Commonwealths. Nowhere is a State prohibited from providing greater rights and benefits than assured by the Federal Constitution. The Federal Constitution establishes the bare minimum. States are free to go above and beyond that.

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution makes premise clear. In recognizing that only certain powers had been surrendered by the People and the States for the greater good in the creation of a Federal Government, our Founders made it clear that but-for those enumerated powers and limitations, EVERY other right and freedom belongs to the States and to the People.

Our Supreme Court said the rules of the game have changed. No longer is a State free to regulate the health, education, welfare, and policing of its citizens. Now all States must surrender any rights and benefits conferred which are above and beyond protections recognized by Congress. Since Congress cannot even shield Humvees in Iraq, how much can we trust them to protect our rights as New Yorkers? The Supreme Court gave carte blanche to the Federal Government to dismantle every right in every State that is more protective than how the Federal laws interpret them.

Back in 2004, there was a little noticed provision of one of the Neo Con Republican fear mongering Bills passed through Congress. Specifically, it mandated a National Driver’s License that all States were required to issue. Now that the law is taking effect, States are starting to complain. Unfortunately, it is too little too late.

Our latest Republican occupant of the White House drove the last nail into the coffin of the United States. With his signing of the Intelligence Bill back in 2004, this newest traitor to the American ideal created a national identification card. He argued it is about immigration and assuring only Americans can get drivers licenses. In reality, it is about the issuance of a National Identity Card. A drivers license is just proof that the possessor thereof has established his or her minimum skills at operating a motor vehicle. There is no reason on earth that the Federal Government should be sticking its reactionary nose into the tent of a free people. These are not the actions of a party of smaller government and freedom. These are the actions of a totalitarian regime hell-bent on controlling and dominating the people.

No more will there be a California or New York or Tennessee. It will just be America; synthesized, uniform, and rigidly monitored. We will no longer be 50 separate States, but one nation, under the Christian God, indivisible at gunpoint, and with liberty and justice for Republicans only.

All this damage and destruction for a Drivers License, all because of rampant anti-Latin American racism, all because neo cons and Republicans were so afraid of the rest of the world that they insist on closing the borders and locking down the nation. We let cowards take over the nation and in doing so, the blowback has cost us our identity.