National Identity Cards - No Thanks.

A friend had asked my opinion on the issuance of "national identity cards" in the United States.  I answered: 

First of all, there is no need for a national identity card. 
Assuming a conjured "need" . . . fundamentally I am concerned about my Privacy and Freedom. 
 
The structures of law and society will expect and demand control of biometric and centralized databases.  
Leave yours at home and what would that mean as to the level of suspicion at a traffic stop and police response [assume you are a teenager - an eighteen year old returning veteran, a Sikh, or other].  The exposure of personal information:  birth, residence, your personal ID Number [for convenient theft],status [citizen by birth/naturalization/fraud], veteran status [disabled/combat experience (suspect PTSD!)], occupation, blood or parts donor, martial status, felon status, religion [name of Imam], etc.)  required on a card which would be called for by or at TSA at the airport, Wal Mart check out, neighbors, prospective in-laws, Catholic confessionals, presidential debates, the blond at the end of the bar and others.

Biometric information, such as fingerprints and DNA, could lead to discrimination in job, insurance, marriage license applications, death panels, paternity suits and with the blond at the end of the bar.

Personally, I have (I think) cut off tracking on my phone and will never use a "fast pass" by any name.  I shudder when I use my GPS.  Clandestine implantation of tracking devices, forced/suggested dispersion/relocation of segments of the population [let's just say "workers" for now], data based reconstruction of personal lifestyle choices [travels, purchases, etc.].  As with all technology there will be advances in content and uses. My imagination does not grasp the potential abuses a government might exercise with such potential controls.  But, I am confident that we may not like the policy.

We as citizens have already let too many of our rights be diminished in the name of "security while at war."  A policy of national identity card would not be a direct, immediate loss of a Right but, it establishes the context for potential abuse or loss of rights.  To continue that surrender in the name of "immigration policy" is irrational.  But then, my experience, training and education makes me careful [ok paranoid].  We are weakening our personal liberties as citizens as we open our role as sovereign to slow destruction.