Rick A. answered • 11/12/20
Former Instructor for Naval Nuclear Power School
The 12th amendment which came up because of the disastrous presidential election of 1800 where the president and vice president were political opponents and the effect that had on subsequent governing. The founding fathers had a real suspicion of political parties and originally designed the structure defined in the Constitution to minimize the impact of political parties if they ever arose.
This absence of political parties did not last even through Washington's presidency..
It is not surprising that persons of like minded political mind would join together to form what became political parties. One of the purposes of the 12th was to require separate balloting of president and vice-president where before there was only one voting with the winner becoming president and runner-up as vice -president.
The 17th where Senator's would be chosen by direct vote instead of chosen by state legislatures had as one of its benefits proposed by supporters was to reduce the power of political parties ehcih they saw as the state legislatures too subject to. It should be noted that the major political parties actually supported the 17th because they saw that it would increase influence of urban over rural, where they saw more of their power concentrated.
