Hi, Fred
If the Founders "did not envision a role for political parties in the governmental order," it is because they wanted to limit the role of Joe Sixpack in the national electoral process.
They specifically excluded the United States Senate and the Presidency from a direct popular vote. Only members of the House of Representatives were to be chosen by the people.
In my state, for example, they envisioned the selection of three (count 'em, three) Presidential electors by a den of rogues known as the the state legislature. Those electors could then vote for the first President who ran unopposed ....twice.
Voting was a privilege to be enjoyed by white guys with property. Your parents generation was the first in which your father could vote for Senate and your mother could vote at all in national elections.
In short, you would have scared the hell out of the Founders.
I don't belong to a political party, but I do not view them as the betes noires of the electoral process. If they have in effect hijacked democracy, it is because an electorate composed largely of the fearful, the stupid, the lazy minded and the apathetic has allowed them to.
I'll give you the last word on this.
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