Thomas Jefferson had it correct. The Constitution requires a report to Congress on “the State of the Union,” but it doesn’t require Congress to treat the head of the co-equal branch of government like a Roman emperor returning on a triumph. ...

In the modern televised era, the SOTU spectacle has become everything Jefferson feared, but with the cynical twist of utter hypocrisy. Members of Congress re-enact the zombie-swarm scenes of World War Z when a president enters the chamber, hoping to get a mere touch of the executive whom half of them despise, and who routinely causes half of the other half to grind their teeth at night. They fete the president who likely can’t get most of his agenda on the floor of the same legislature as though he just conquered the vast hinterlands of Gaul.

And that’s just the entry, mind you. The speech is even worse.