Our nation has many gentle rivalries. As a northern California native, I have always known that I’m slightly superior to our friends in So Cal. (LA-LA land’s ignorance of our disdain validates it wonderfully, by the way.)

Maine people have a similar feeling toward their neighbors in Massachusetts (even while they root for Boston’s professional sports teams). This is among the things I enjoyed discovering this week as I traveled to the far northeast for some lively discussion of the REAL ID Act.

On a panel I was privileged to join at a community center in Augusta Wednesday night, George Smith, executive director of the Maine Sportsmen’s Alliance, stood to share his opinion of our national ID law and what Maine should do about it. A Norman Rockwell painting come to life, he spoke with all the directness (and accent) of a lifelong Mainer. Summarizing, his message was this: They had their Boston Tea Party. Let’s have a REAL ID Party!

All the spirit and independence that makes me so proud of Americans — without sparing that family rivalry for even a minute!

The result of George’s work — along with the Maine Civil Liberties Union and a bipartisan consensus of the state’s political leaders — was near unanimous passage of a state resolution refusing to implement REAL ID. Maine is now the first state to reject the REAL ID Act, and the tide against the bill is beginning to run.

(For some equally stirring rhetoric in defense of liberty and against a national ID, here’s New Hampshire Representative Neal Kurk (R‑Weare) on the REAL ID Act last year. New Hampshire is one of many states likely to join Maine in rejecting a national ID.)

I have tried to supply the intellectual arguments for rejecting a national ID in my book, Identity Crisis: How Identification is Overused and Misunderstood. I was pleased to offer Smith and a number of Maine’s political leaders copies of the book.