I teach this in Poli Sci 15 at San Jose State Univ. The Founding Fathers were deadset against monarchy (except Hamilton, he was too young), because of their bad experience with George III. So any dumb fool who wanted to create a new king after the US would be free of George III was ridiculed as a fool (including Hamilton - yeah Lin Manuel left that out of the Broadway show). The problem with democracy is that it lets dumb people have as much of a say in government as smart people. The Founding Fathers did not want to live in an idiotocracy; they wanted a meritocracy. Government by the smart was a good idea (it still is). Also, it was very clear to them that the democracy of Athens made terrible decisions. 1. They jumped into a war with Persia in 500 BC they were not capable of winning, which brought terrible consequences. 2.The Athenian democracy executed Socrates, because he was mocking and embarrassing hypocrites. They decided on a system closer to Rome where there was a limited element of democracy and regular elections, but in practical terms, only the wealthy and educated were able to run for office with any chance of winning. They did not adopt the system of 2 heads of state at all times, but did go for limited terms in office. And they created 2 houses in Congress, not one. But the Upper House did not originally have direct election for the first 125 years - until 1914. Remember that originally there was no popular vote for President.
