Limit elections to high-information voters!

Many times I find myself on the minority side of important controversies. This column marks the first time I'm taking a position absolutely NOBODY else agrees with. At least I've never known of anyone who shares my view. And my inspiration to put it in writing comes from a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. As the Clinton-Trump race heated up I seemed to hear the venerable Danish storyteller saying to me, "Son, speak forth your viewpoint. You're not an 'Ugly Duckling.' You're a beautiful swan!"

All our lives we hear the mantra, "Get out the vote!" "Let's get in there and get out the vote!" "Let's be sure to get out the vote!" And what the rest of you seem to accept as holy writ to me sounds exactly like: "Be sure to get all the narcotics for the party!" "Don't fool with the electricity unless you're standing barefoot in water," or "You're slurring your words. You'd better have another martini before you drive over those mountains!"

I view "getting out the vote" as the most dangerous legal threat to our democracy. In America's early days, you had to be a property owner to vote. These days I think you should be required to own a little bit of intellectual property before you vote. You should be required to know when Election Day is and where you go to vote.

I CARE about this country. I read. I study. I follow campaigns and listen to debates. I view my role as an American citizen as that of a member of some sacred jury. I would have to be in the hospital in traction and broken in seven places, five of them critical, and no way to do an absentee ballot before I'd miss a vote. Can anybody explain to me why the power of my vote should be nullified by that of some zombified political illiterate whose vote has been "gotten out" by a neighbor whose power saw he sometimes borrows? Or worse, by some unfortunate resident of a home for the aged who has no idea where the bus is taking everybody or why but he's given a little card showing him which levers he's supposed to push when they get there.

The talk shows at this stage of the election cycle warn us that countries like Norway and Australia boast much higher voter turnout than we do here in America and our percentages are getting worse and worse, so be sure and get out the vote! For some reason I remain un-intimidated at America's poor voter turnout. We're not talking about blood pressure! A school board election in New York City a few years ago had only a 2 percent turnout of eligible voters. So what! If only 2 percent cares enough to vote, they deserve to command the outcome!

TRENDING: The coup is failing

The important thing is to make sure there are no impediments to keep eligible voters who want to vote from voting. There was an interesting lawsuit in Florida a few elections ago. An eligible voter told a community organizer he was a Republican and wanted to know when the election would take place. The organizer, a Democrat, told him, "Democrats vote next Tuesday. Republicans vote next Wednesday!" That Republican said he was deliberately misled when he learned he was a day late. The community organizer said he was only kidding and couldn't believe anybody would take him seriously. I say we're better off having people like that not voting. They're dangerous, though not as dangerous as the "community organizers."

I'd love to see legislation that would eliminate the ability of anybody to fill up the van or the bus with voters who don't know and don't care. I'd make it a crime to try to persuade such people to join the voter safari, all gather in the lobby at 11 a.m. Vote the straight A-line. That should be permitted only if someone asks for a lift to the polls. "Importuning others to vote" should be against the law. Getting-out-the-vote is considered such a worthy and noble thing to do – but can you deny that elections that are decided by which team can succeed in delivering the most unknowing and uncaring voters yield warped results? It's possible you have nothing against warped results if they happen to be warped in your favored direction. In that case, that's all the more reason to protect the true picture, the true result, on Election Night, and that picture can only result if the voting is limited to those who know who they want and where and when to go vote.

Bernie Sanders had higher hopes for a socialist America than I have for an America where voting is confined to the eager and the willing, and not the reluctant and the importuned who have to be gotten-out.

I have a dream! I dream of an America where votes are WON, and not reached out for and grabbed like fish. Don't ask me what I've been drinking or smoking.

It's all the work of Danish fairytales.

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