re: #45 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

All rhetorical questions.

I agree, particularly the religious question. However, religion runs our government policy, Constitution be damned.

And in Germany, you need to show your registered address to enroll your kids in school, apply for social services, open a bank account, register a car, apply for a driver’s license, etc., making it a lot harder for undocumented aliens to get established.

That would be a very simple way to lock the homeless out of society. You can’t vote (that’s already a problem here), no banking (any direct deposit payments you’re due can’t be paid), registering and driving a car (already problems here because if you’re busted driving a car at your last registered address they’ll take your car and ticket you, and your car might also be your home), no school for your kids (or they’ll just take ‘em), &c.

I don’t want conservative-run states having that kind of power over the homeless: Been there, done that.

The relative ease with which undocumented workers can get established in America once they have safely made it past the border is one of the things that makes this country so attractive.

ID is not what makes the country attractive, and it can be faked anyway.

But we are going to spend our time initiating half-measures that just kick the can down the road without solving the root issues and spin down a sinkhole of rhetoric and counter-rhetoric.

Yes. We will. For all the reasons I noted above (religious people, making sure the right people don’t vote, Constitutional mandate for states to run the vote) we won’t get a system that ensures everyone who can vote are registered. (The Constitutional bar is the hardest. Count to thirteen conservative states opposed to an amendment and it fails.)

PS: I just got a friendly reminder from the local authorities that my passport is about to expire and I need a valid one to remain a resident in Germany. I would have overlooked that entirely until I tried to board an airplane or cross a non-EU border at some point…

You should get on that early, since conservatives have been cutting State department employees and it takes longer to renew a passport.