Political parties are, as an institution, a danger to society. Every day we participate in a system that feeds our desire to prove that we are on the side of right, and our opponents on a daily basis must be defeated lest they drag us all down to hell itself. What is sweeter than watching your political opponents fail? (A big favorite these days is “drinking the tears of party x.”)

Because, when you get down to it, it is US versus THEM. And if you are not one of US you must be ONE OF THEM. Except that is not how this works at all. US and THEM are actually WE. Remember? “We, the people,”? We are the United States of America on the ticket, but there is nothing united about us.

The dialogue in this country has been reduced to: “You’re a Nazi!” “You’re a snowflake!” “You’re a Communist!” There is no discussion, no debate, there is only condemning opponents and hoping not to go down in the crossfire.

But if political parties are so bad, why didn’t anybody warn us? Somebody did. You might remember this guy, “father of our country” and all that, George Washington. Washington, in his farewell address, says, “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”

He goes on to compare the party mentality to that of a fire, one that wise individuals would do well to keep in check unless it was to overtake the system as a whole. Washington warned that “…and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.” James Madison, our fourth president, alongside Alexander Hamilton no less, warned of the dangers of parties, or “domestic factions” in the Federalists Papers.

Some would argue that political parties were inevitable. Humans are hardwired to think along the lines of “people who are in my tribe,” and “people who are not in my tribe.” Washington, Madison, and Hamilton all knew it is a part of basic human nature, but that they would have catastrophic implications in a modern government. That’s why they tried to warn us in the first place. In a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2016, 45% of Republicans viewed Democrats and their policies as a threat to the nation. That same poll showed that 41% of Democrats felt the same way about Republicans.

Entire swaths of people who, because of the views they hold, are considered detrimental to the progress of our society. Imagine what someone from the outside of our system must think? How easy it would be to use this powder keg of emotion against us. Who needs soldiers when you can just make a Twitter account? Hell, you wouldn’t even need to buy your own matches, we will light it for you. Every time a protest ends in bloodshed our enemies sit back and smile.

Let me make something clear, however: being in a political party doesn’t make you a bad person. You aren’t some sucker, tricked into a party with the promise of political sway or policy. They are, at the end of the day, tools. Tools that can be used to help keep your interests on the table, even to do some good. But they are also, quite clearly, tools for evil. There needs to be a system in place that limits their capabilities.

Checks, to make sure that what is being championed is, at the end of the day, still for the betterment of all people, not just Republicans, Democrats, or any political party that seeks power. And sure, even if we are able to do that, it won’t fix everything the country has going against it. (Lookin’ at you, Twitter.) But we will be undoubtedly on the right track to getting simple, civil debate back into the American life.