In the first presidential election, one of Virginia's ten electors was Patrick Henry. The other nine were the leading lights of the state.
The electoral college is selected by the people...
It's elected by the people, but selected by the state party organizations.
If the House selects the speaker who is third in line, the Senate can select the VP who is second in line.
That's as of 1947 when the Succession Act was last amended. Originally, after the VP, the succession went to the cabinet officers in order of the date of department establishment. Taking the Speaker and a Senate-elected Presiding Officer of the Senate out of the line of succession might make more sense.
In the first presidential election, one of Virginia’s ten electors was Patrick Henry. The other nine were the leading lights of the state.
Okay. But we have the parties being created before the founding fathers went away. Moreover there were parties at the state level during the ratification of the constitution. I think that what you call “before the creation of the parties” (to paraphrase) was the founding fathers themselves full of their idealism and experiences and minus the culling of the Loyalists from the American political leadership. I don’t think the parties corrupted man. I think man’s corruption is made clear by parties. We blame parties for inherent faults in voters. Again, we chose to be victims.
“A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”