As if that weren’t bad enough, the newly taxed money would go only to the major parties’ primaries. Republican taxpayers would be forced to pay for the Democratic primaries and vice versa. That is, each taxpayer would be forced to help their opposing party determine its strongest candidate.

What if you’re an Independent or belong to a third party? Although members of the Libertarian Party, Green Party, and others would be forced to pay the tax, no third party is allowed to have primary elections. I will repeat that. No parties, other than Republicans and Democrats, are currently allowed to have primary elections by state law.

According to Gallup research polls released in January 2015, 43% of registered voters in the U.S. are registered as Independents. If that percentage even remotely holds true for Tennessee (we don’t know because the state of Tennessee doesn’t require party affiliation with voter registration), then this means countless Tennesseans are being forced to subsidize elections for parties of which they are not even members.

There is some debate as to whether the two major parties are private organizations or semi-public, but why should they be subsidized with tax dollars in either case if state law treats all other political parties as private organizations?