DAVID MARCUS: It's been 25 years since 'The West Wing' ruined American politics

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On Monday, the cast of the TV show "The West Wing" appeared at the White House, with President Joe Biden posting a photo saying "Always a pleasure welcoming President Bartlet and his staff back to the White House."

It was like seeing two fake presidents at once, and neither the fast-fading current commander in chief nor the make-believe one have been anything but terrible for American politics.

In life there are many things that are fun, or tasty, or stimulating that really aren’t very good for you. It is now clear that "The West Wing," Aaron Sorkin’s seminal drama set in the White House was one of them.

ROB LOWE COMPARES FILMING 'THE WEST WING' TO A 'SUPER UNHEALTHY RELATIONSHIP'

What Sorkin, and a supremely talented cast, tapped into back in 1999 was a new way of looking at politics in which the two major parties were no longer seeking common goals through different approaches and policies.

Instead, each party was first and foremost a team, one of which represented moral goodness and progress, and almost always won, while the other was regressive, and even sometimes tinted with evil.

The pretend Democratic president, Jeb Bartlet and his tireless, plucky staff are unquestionably the heroes of the show, and in a way, were like a shadow presidency during the rocky eight years of George W. Bush, which it more or less coincided