SHOW ME YOUR PLASTIC, NOT YOUR PAPERS

Byron York at the Washington Examiner does an awesome job of taking back the narrative from the unhinged left, which has been manufacturing drama by comparing Arizona SB 1070 with the 'show me your papers' mantra reminiscent of Nazis and Soviets. The fact that the far left which shows up at the immigration rallies consists of a large number of socialist and communist sympathizers, that narrative is being exposed as rather hollow.

To York's point in his latest column, Drivers licenses may not be issued to illegal aliens in Arizona. Therefore, if a police officer asks you for your DL during a traffic stop - or for any other reason - and you produce it, you're automatically assumed to be a legal citizen in the United States.

The focus of York's piece is former George W. Bush speech writer Michael Gerson, who seems to buy into the demagoguery of SB 1070 exhibited by the left. Quoting Gerson:

Americans are not accustomed to the command "Your papers, please," however politely delivered. The distinctly American response to such a request would be "Go to hell," and then "See you in court."

York makes mincemeat out of Gerson's claim. After providing scores of examples in which Americans every day are asked to produce their Drivers Licenses on top of having to give very personal information on a whole range of issues to various agencies or entities required to ask for it by law, York delivers a slam dunk retort:

Many of the situations in which we are asked to produce ID are the result of laws passed by our representatives, Democrats and Republicans, that are, overall, good things. But they require Americans to produce their papers, in the form of a driver's license, quite frequently. If Americans responded with "Go to hell" and "See you in court" each time they were asked to produce their license, both hell and court would be very crowded.

Read the whole thing.