Please read Section 201(3)-(4) of the Real ID Act:
(3) OFFICIAL PURPOSE- The term 'official purpose' includes but is not limited to accessing Federal facilities, boarding federally regulated commercial aircraft, entering nuclear power plants, and any other purposes that the Secretary shall determine.
(4) SECRETARY- The term 'Secretary' means the Secretary of Homeland Security.
Source: https://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/real-id-act-text.pdf
In other words, the Secretary of Homeland Security has unilateral authority to expand the uses of real IDs. In their 2008 rule, DHS even doubled down:
"DHS does not agree that it must seek the approval of Congress as a prerequisite to changing the definition in the future (except of course to remove one of the three statutorily-mandated official purposes) as § 201(3) of the Act gives discretion to the Secretary of Homeland Security to determine other purposes."
That could include voting, accessing medical care, etc. Do you trust Kristi Noem with this power? Do you trust every future secretary with this power?
If not, I urge you to not get a real id if you don't have one, or turn in your real id for a state one if you do have one, and instead get a passport. The DHS cannot enforce anything if the majority of Americans refuse to get real ids. Let us not just bow down to a national id that invades our privacy and could be used to control us.
It's kind of bizarre that the US doesn't have a national ID for internal everyday use, and people are just expected to have and use their driver's license for ID purposes.
You don't need a driver's license. You can get a non-driver state id. The reason so many Americans have a drivers license is because the US has terrible public transportation.
You either get a driver's license or a state ID (which may be compliant with Real ID if it's compliant). You generally can't have both in any of the 10 states I've lived in.
You can have a drivers license and a state Id. You just can't have 2 real id compliant cards.
There a few states that don't allow you to have multiple state issued credentials (Indiana, Illinois).
Usually you are not allowed to have multiple IDs from multiple states.
Given those limitations I'm not sure I see value in having both.
In my state you really don't have a choice. They do not issue regular IDs anymore.