In his Farewell Address, George Washington warned against the noxious impact political parties might have on our government. Though he would have preferred a government without them, he recognized that the spirit of partisanship is “inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind.” History has proven him correct. In what is almost an iron law of free governments, parties emerge like a fog that covers a verdant valley. Parties cannot be repulsed, they just are, but unlike a fog, they do not dissipate under the sun’s glow. Parties persist.

But, let us be candid. They are still noxious. If loyal partisans blanch at that comment, they only need to review the State of the Union Address to find sufficient evidence to support this claim.

What was intended by the Constitution to force the president to keep Congress informed about the executive’s perception of our government, has degenerated into a media event. Malcolm Muggeridge famously claimed that everything television touches, it destroys.* The State of the Union Address is no exception, not that its destruction deserves many tears.

This past Tuesday, we witnessed the theater of the absurd. President Obama and his loyal partisans, who cheered when they did not appear prostrate before him, laid out a progressive agenda that surely stirred the soul of those who see government as a key source of economic security or provision. Obama argued for either free or federally subsidized college tuition, child care, and medical leave, all courtesy of the 1%, who would be taxed to pay the bill.

The Republicans, both in their formal response that evening by Joni Ernst, and in their behavior within the chamber, also played their assigned roles with aplomb. They committed to resolutely resist anything the President uttered, either by scowls, mock applause, or the occasional giggle. Even Republicans realized, however, that some things they could not afford even to appear to hate. So, whenever the President mentioned the military, children, or potential campaign contributors, everyone stood to their feet. Though disagreements remain on how to channel our collective goodwill toward soldiers and kids, little argument persists as it relates to campaign funds. As in the Wizard of Oz, Washington, D.C. truly is the Emerald City because everything there is tinted green and it belongs to someone else.

Besides the outright silliness, the absurd is due to the impossibility of all that was done or said. No one, not even the President, believes Congress is amenable to the Executive’s plans. No one, not even the Speaker of the House, honestly believes Obamacare can be overturned any time soon, or that the budget can be balanced, or that Iran can be sanctioned via legislation. But everyone played their role because they are, to one degree or another, loyal partisans who are looking ahead to 2016.

Partisanship, you must understand, has nothing to do with solving problems. It has nothing to do with meeting needs. It has nothing to do with truth. Partisanship, at its core, is designed to win elections. Parties do not pursue policies to implement them. Parties pursue policies for their own benefit–to lure voters into their clutches. Only when the party is over-ridden, through circumstance, will, or the occasional goodness of a body of people who put thoughts of their political futures aside, does the party yield to policy demands. Parties, to be clear, are most likely to pursue policies when the politicians that dominate them figure out that they MUST do so in order to win their next election.

Don’t misinterpret this to mean we should eschew parties or that there is some nobility present in those who are “independent.” The only way to influence our government, unless you are sleeping on a mountain of money, is through the partisan system. This is how we vote and this is how we maintain our touch with the government. We all should choose a party and then work like mad to hold it accountable, just as we are to hold our government accountable.

Washington foresaw this when he said, “the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.” It is up to us to provide this restraint to purely partisan thinking.

The carrot and the stick are in your hands. If you want elected officials who are able to rise above mere partisanship, you have to search them out. Find them. They are out there, I promise. Support them. Encourage them to run for office. Pray the process does not corrupt them. Demand they follow through. If they don’t, start over. You are the key ingredient in this dish–not the party, not the President, and not the Congress.

*Muggeridge’s comment may not be precisely on point here. TV did not destroy the State of the Union Address, though it surely pushed it across the icy patch to ruin. The most exact blame lies at the feet of Woodrow Wilson, who was the first modern president to turn the matter into a spectacle designed to achieve is own, often vicious, political ends. So, Muggeridge’s Law has a corollary. Wilson’s Law: Everything Woodrow Wilson Touched, He Destroyed. I can live with that.