CARLTON FLETCHER: Is this any way to run a country?

“Now it’s time for change.”

— Motley Crue

It’s always interesting, telling and more than a little sad to hear or read the words of someone who understands little about his or her topic but doesn’t allow that lack of knowledge to stop him or her from rambling on.

(I call this, by the way, the Rush Limbaugh Corollary … in honor of the king of BS who speaks as if he has inside information but actually only repeats talking points that further his own viewpoint. Sadly, so so many people accept his — and other talking heads on both sides of the political spectrum — blubbering as truth.)

A surprising number of people rightly talk about the “do-nothing Congress” empaneled in Washington, and their complaints are spot-on, given the lack of any meaningful legislation coming out of the nation’s capital. But so many of these would-be pundits prove with their commentary that they have no clue about the inner workings of the federal government. It’s like they slept through American Government class (or spent their time like I did in Ms. Roberts’ Algebra II class, pining over Caroline Paulk. She was, in my defense, an exceptional beauty … sigh.)

Too many people have complained that the “Democrats in Congress” have passed no meaningful legislation since President Trump took office. What they don’t seem to grasp is that it’s the Republicans in the U.S. Senate, led by that wretched reprobate Mitch McConnell, who spend their time, essentially, twiddling their collective thumbs.

McConnell, one might remember if one could put aside partisanship, is the person who said Republicans’ primary concern after the 2008 election was to “make sure Barrack Obama is not re-elected.” His roll transformed, overnight after the 2008 election, from a position of leadership to a post of obstruction. No meaningful legislation that was supported by Obama was endorsed by Republicans in the Senate, no matter the legislation’s merit.

Even with the election of Trump and a clear Republican majority in both houses of Congress and, two years into his presidency, with control of the Senate, McConnell and his mates in the upper chamber vote to approve Republican-only officials and refuse to even discuss the dozens of proposed bills sent to the Senate from the Democratic-controlled House. And they send forth no legislation of their own.

The Senate has become so inactive, the American people rightfully are left to wonder how they fill their days. Do they play solitaire on their computers, send emails back and forth reminding each other not to vote for anything that has the letter “D” attached to it, or just solicit more funds from the Koch brothers, the NRA and big tobacco for their non-votes?

If employees of a major company were this inactive on their jobs, they would be booted out the door with little fanfare. Of course, any business that would hire such a group of do-nothings has set itself up for failure anyway.

Which leads to my contention that the American people — who will never do this because so many of them buy into the ideals of tree-hugging liberals or money-hugging conservatives — would be wise CEOs of the American democracy if they gave every single individual in Congress the boot and started anew. How can a Mitch McConnell or a David Perdue or even a Chuck Schumer or an Elizabeth Warren look their constituents in the eyes and say they’re doing all they can for them?

That’s a bald-faced lie. What they’re doing is nothing … confirming now low-level appointees whose ideology fits in with the majority’s viewpoint. Which would be fine — you hold the majority, you make the picks — if they were also doing anything about, oh, I don’t know, crime, global warming, immigration, gun issues, trade policies that are crippling farmers, the spiraling cost of health care.

Truth is, the Senate sits on its collective thumbs, waits for marching orders from the White House and refuses to even discuss legislation passed by the House and sent up to the upper chamber for consideration. As Alfred E. Neuman, that MAD magazine sage, used to ask, “Is this any way to run a country?”

The answer: an emphatic no.