Originally, the 2nd place candidate got the VP position.....?

Question

Way back at the start of the US. What do you think would happen if we tried that today. If the Dem won, the Rep would be VP. Would it help to force the sides to work together?? would it just be a mess?? Would there be a lot more assassinations?? What are your thoughts?

by assassinations I mean for the purpose of getting the other party into the presidential spot. like, the losing party trying to take the top spot.

Answer 1

The reason behind stopping the practice of the second place candidate becoming VP was because it led to cross party conflict and just caused a huge mess. It didn't really force the sides to work together at all because an important aspect of US government to consider is that there are really 3 courses of action in most issues as they become relevant 1) choose the "republican" way 2) choose the "democrat" way 3) do nothing about it. When the Pres and VP were from different parties they generally just did nothing about it. This actually pleases no one on either side since both sides are interested in the issue at hand.

On assasination: of the 4 presidents who were assasinated (lincoln, garfield, arthur, kennedy) only lincoln's assasination was for interparty differences (ie, he was killed by a democrat because he held rebublican views). Garfield was killed by an insane man for no political reason. Arthur was killed by an insane man who was in his own party (republican). Kennedy's assasination does not appear to have cross party causes. The jury is still out on JFK's assassination but some believe that Lyndon Johnson (his VP who was in his party, democrats) had everything to gain by it. Furthermore, JFK's death may have had no interparty political motivations at all (ie because Oswald was just crazy)