In January, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., proposed legislation to repeal a Biden-era regulation that requires all automakers to put “kill switches” in their new cars, as well as software to determine whether a driver is impaired. It failed, with 57 Republicans opposing it.
Today, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is fighting to end the kill switch as part of the new FISA legislation, but his effort isn’t looking good either.
My first reaction to this bad news was to take my beat-up 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer to the shop because I might now have to drive it for the rest of my life.
An undated file photo of rush hour traffic in Manhattan, NY (iStock)
Obviously, I have no intention of driving while impaired in any way, but the idea of owning a car, connected to the internet, that the government can just shut down on a whim is an Orwellian step too far for me, and, I suspect, for many Americans.
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Sure, it starts with you not being allowed to start your own car if you look drunk, but soon it will happen if you miss a payment, don’t pay your EZ-Pass bill or say something controversial on a website.
I may be old fashioned, but all I want from a car is an engine and wheels. I don’t want it talking to me, and I certainly don’t want it listening to me. It’s a car, not my boss or my therapist.
I could drive from West Virginia to Utah without my seatbelt on in my Lancer, and it wouldn’t sound like the buzz and buzz of a Vegas casino.
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Never once does my vehicle say in a low and gentle voice, with a flashing red light, “Dave, you’re driving a little fast, aren’t you?”
It’s bad enough that cars are self-driving these days. So not only could the government potentially lock your ignition, they could also use your own car to take you to jail, which I think is at least efficient.
Thomas Massie (Reuters/Annabelle Gordon)
The argument from the Democrats and the 57 Republicans who want to control you more is what it almost always is; an appeal to safety, an estimate of how many lives will be saved, that will be treated as irrefutable, as if we don’t weigh life and death every day.
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To borrow a phrase from the bad old days of COVID: “If it saves just one life.”
But if that is really the starting point, why wouldn’t we require that all vehicles have a speed controller that sets their speed to a maximum of 120 kilometers per hour? That would save a huge number of lives and greatly facilitate police traffic.
If the problem is related to drunk driving, install a breathalyzer which is required to start the engine. Problem solved.
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The reason we don’t take these invasive measures to prevent car deaths is that neither can be used as a cudgel; neither of these options makes our personal cars more like government-controlled public transportation.
What’s next? The government is remotely rationing how often you can drive your own car? Where are you allowed and not allowed?
Does that really sound so far-fetched?
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At the point where we can no longer simply turn on our cars and drive them, without permission from the federal government, our cars are no longer our property. We just rent them from the state.
Unfortunately, it appears that point is about to arrive, as once again, too many Republicans in Congress are rolling over like a cute seal in the zoo and watching our rights being trampled.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on October 20, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
To make matters worse, we are now reaping the benefits of President Barack Obama’s “Cash for Clunkers” program, which has mindlessly taken hundreds of thousands of usable used cars off the market.
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Not only do the Democrats want to control your new car, they also want to destroy the old cars they have no control over.
I saw the impact of this firsthand in North Carolina after the devastation of Hurricane Helene, where families went from two cars to one car because there simply wasn’t a supply of cheap used cars available.
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Owning a car is a central facet of the American dream, the conquering of distance, the freedom of travel, but that dream can quickly turn into a nightmare if we hand over the keys to the government.
All of this is why I now think I’ll keep my Lancer until the government takes it out of my cold, dead driveway. If you’re anything like me, I’ll see you at the mechanic soon.
CLICK HERE TO DAVID MARCUS
