opinion

How will Gov. Doug Ducey stamp HIS driver's license?

On his very first day in office Gov. Doug Ducey wil not have to decide whether he wants Arizona to stamp the word "non-citizen" onto the driver's licenses of dreamers -- those young people who qualify for deferred deportation status -- but he will have to choose what he'll stamp on his license:

Leader? Or, follower?

Gov. Jan Brewer chose to deny licenses to the dreamers, who were granted work permits through a program created by President Barack Obama in 2012. It allows young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children to stay and work for two years without the threat of deportation.

A license is not citizenship. Many non-citizens already have licenses like this. Among them "green card" holders. Likewise, since the licenses have a relatively short expiration date there is really no need to include what would amount to a 2015 version of the scarlet letter.

The only reason to go along with such a thing is spitefulness, resentment, and a willingness to perpetuate the lingering grudge Ducey's predecessor Gov. Jan Brewer has against President Barack Obama.

It's a silly, childish pet peeve that serves no purpose except to make Arizona look bad.

The "non-citizen" stamp won't solve anything. It won't protect the state from voter fraud, which doesn't really exist. Instead, something like this only invites the type of ridicule the state is hoping to avoid, particularly during Super Bowl season, when the eyes of all America will be on the Valley.

So, what will Ducey do? (And by the way, doesn't that sentence sound like something yelled out by a square dance caller? Sorry, I digress.)

Essentially, the new governor will have to decide if he wants to follow Brewer off a public relations cliff or lead the state in a new direction.

He could do so first by saying he'll drop Brewer's push to get the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the driver's license case. And then by saying he will not abide any venal bill about a "non-citizen" stamp.

Then, maybe, he could do something important and humane, and fiscally responsible, by fighting for the state's Medicaid expansion, which the legislative radicals (I know, redundant) from his own party would like to kill, causing tens of thousands of Arizonans to lose health care and putting the state into a bigger financial hole than it already is.

If you're Ducey you don't want to be labeled a follower at the very beginning of your term.

Labels are difficult to shake.

Did you know there was a time when some state's stamped the birth certificates of children born to unwed parents as "illegitimate?"

We figured out, eventually, that no child is illegitimate.

That's a good thing. Still, an "illegitimate" stamp might come in handy with certain people.

Politicians, for example.

(And yes, I know, certain newspaper writers.)