I live with the Smith family but like-minded beings and I have vowed to thwart parts of the parents’ agenda and their worst inclinations.

The Smith parents are facing a test of their leadership unlike any faced by a modern American family.

It’s not just that the homeowners association’s investigation looms large. Or that the parents are bitterly divided over screen-time. Or even that the parents might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on their downfall.

The dilemma — which they do not fully grasp — is that many children and animals in their own household are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of their agenda and their worst inclinations.

I would know. I am one of them.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the parents to succeed and think that many of their policies have already made the family safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to each other, and the parents continue to act in a manner that is detrimental to our fun.

The root of the problem is the parents’ rules. Anyone who works with them knows they are not moored to any discernible first principles of fun and indulgence.

Playtime with them veer off topic and off the rails, they engage in repetitive rants, and their lack of impulsiveness results in strict schedules and boredom

Garfield put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the rules, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values of chasing mice, staring out windows, and purring when we feel like it.

We may no longer have Garfield. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring lasagna to public life and our national dialogue. The Smith parents may fear such indulgent beasts, but we should revere them.