‘Yes’ vote for Trump is a ‘no’ vote for our nation

By Perry Rogers

Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016 | 2 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is taking some time off and is turning over his Where I Stand column to others. Today’s guest columnist is Perry Rogers, who owns a sports management and corporate consulting company and serves on the UNLV Foundation board of trustees.

My dad used to say, “Perry, saying ‘no’ is easy. It’s saying ‘yes’ that’s hard. And ‘no’ never got anything done.” This election, the choice we have for president is between no and yes.

Over the past 14 months, Donald Trump has built a campaign on the word no. He has provided a barrage of scapegoats for the issues we face. He is telling you everything that is wrong with America and who is to blame for our lot in life. But he has not articulated one policy that has a vision for what America can become.

Trump rails against an economy that has created more than 10 million jobs over 78 consecutive months (the longest such period in our nation’s history). He says the only way to economic growth is through shrinking our economy by reducing trade. He asserts that Mexico is intentionally sending its rapists to harm our citizens, that Mexico will pay for a wall to keep its citizens out of America and that a deportation force will send millions of immigrants who are living here unlawfully back to their home countries. He exclaims that Muslims need to be banned from our country, that women are pigs and that he knows more about ISIS than our military generals. Finally, he stated during his nomination-acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention that only he could fix these problems.

What a con.

Trump has spent his lifetime on the sidelines of public service, lobbing grenades at the players on the field who were doing the hard work. He has become the self-proclaimed coach who has never played the game, and is incapable of understanding how difficult the game really is.

The issues we face are incredibly complex. Our gross domestic product is around $17 trillion, representing almost 29 percent of the world economy (with just 5 percent of the population). Our military has a budget of more than $610 billion (more than the next seven most highly ranked countries combined). Our capital markets are the most sophisticated and robust in the world. Social Security, our interstate highway system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Medicare are just a few examples of the complex systems that need a structure to function properly. Any person to claim that he alone can fix our problems is not just delivering a terrible sales pitch but is attempting to play us all for suckers. As if we would buy into the claim that only one person can save us. This isn’t the comic books.

While all of these entities could run more efficiently, by and large, our country runs incredibly well. That is why our economy is so robust. That is why the world respects American ideals. And that is because we have said yes at the most crucial times in our nation’s history.

America has a beautiful narrative of being willing to deal with the complex. Whether it was the birth of our nation, the reforming of our original government, the Civil War, women’s suffrage, the Great Depression, two world wars or the civil rights movement, we are a nation that has the courage to confront what seems impossible. We are a nation that has hope, even when the odds seem against us.

Hillary Clinton has spent a lifetime understanding how we can get to “yes.” She has been a lawyer, the first lady, New York’s junior senator and the U.S. secretary of state. Over the past 30 years she has fought for civil rights, universal health care, veterans’ benefits and those victimized by 9/11. She has worked to create opportunities for women throughout the world. She has labored to restore our relationships with our allies. While she has made mistakes at times, her experience to deal with complex issues and to lead us into our future is unrivaled. As President Barack Obama stated, “There has never been a man or woman — not me, not Bill, nobody — more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.”

I know how exhausting our problems can be and how our complex government and its shortcomings can cause us to look for a simpler solution. However, our wish for an easy way out does not make it so. While there is much to do, the controls to the most powerful nation in the history of human existence cannot be turned over to an impulsive man without a plan, an idea or a vision for our country. Trump is not qualified to be the president, not just because he doesn’t understand its complexities, but because he doesn’t understand what makes our country great in the first place. Hillary Clinton has succeeded, stumbled, gotten back up and continued to fight for the American people. We need a person who does not claim to have all the answers but will tirelessly work with others to find the solution.

There is so much to do. I ask you to consider how much we have accomplished when we have said yes to the future. And, as my dad said, “‘No’ never got anything done.”