The Separation of Party and State

I sent this comment to Paul Jacobs's post "Listen to Whom" at This is Common Sense:

I'm for the complete Separation of Party and State. Parties should be 100% private organizations that get their candidates on the ballot through coordinated petition drives, and that campaign for those candidates. It's more than reasonable to restrict the party nomination process to members with a record of donating dollars or time to the party. It makes no sense to allow anyone, including those who seek to harm the party's general election chances,, to walk in and vote in primaries.

Also, there should be no party affiliation on ballots. Voters shouldn't be able to just vote "party line" with no effort; they should know beforehand which candidate for each office is from the party they favor. Elected officeholders would be formally nonpartisan.

And of course, no party should get any subsidies whatsoever. No one should be forced to financially support candidates or ideas they find abhorrent.