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is it really necessary?
No, it's not necessary. The Constitution directs the President to give THE CONGRESS from TIME TO TIME information on the state of the union, "and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient". It was not meant to be a yearly occasion for a public display of propaganda meant to intimidate the Congress or the opposition party into acquiescing to his or his party's agenda. It was obviously meant for the executive to give its opinion to CONGRESS, when times and circumstances called for it, on how things were going with the intention or hope that its views would be helpful. It was meant to facilitate cooperation between the executive and legislative branches within the limits to which they were constitutionally bound. It was certainly not meant to be a brick-bat for the executive to beat about the head of Congress in order to pound them into submission. It was a polite and respectful way to maintain separation of powers yet have input, when helpful, into the legislative process without actually usurping it.
The Founders would be puking in their graves at the yearly public side-show called the State of the Union Address, and would probably regret ever inserting it into the Constitution. But, then, that would pale to them in comparison to the rest of the shredding that has occurred to their well-wrought document. That it has been inverted from a protection of hard and bloody won freedom into an excuse for an even more powerful tyranny than that against which they fought would probably give them comfort to be in their graves rather than a part of what has transpired.
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