Maybe it’s not about Trump v Clinton. Maybe it’s about us ...

Maybe this election isn’t about Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton or Democrats vs. Republicans. Maybe we’re in this no-win situation because ...

▪ The United States is now middle-aged. Our adolescence is gone — but we are not maturing. Our social aches and pains take longer to heal — but we aren’t preventing them. We try to re-invent ourselves using force, not aging gracefully through spiritual wisdom. Every great power declines, but allowing younger generations to define their own opportunities while giving elders all they earned and deserve might actually determine our legacy.

▪ We’ve taught the world to want the American Dream, and now many are hungry to eat our lunch while we lose our edge. Their striving is not derailed by our rhetoric; nor are they discouraged by minor obstacles. “Give us your tired, hungry, poor, etc.” only works if we need more people than we already have. Modernization has eroded our competitive advantages. Instead of bullying micro-management, we might try using leadership/statesmanship. New accomplishments must be built on something more tangible than egocentric recounting of glory days gone by.

▪ Our brilliant constitutional framers can’t be faulted for not predicting every change 300 years into the future, but religious freedom probably meant minor differences among Protestants, not the major philosophical/value differences between Protestants and non-Judeo-Christians. America was created by WASP men for WASP men and not for such diverse colors, ethnicities or personal orientations. The Second Amendment was intended to defend one’s world at close range, one shot at a time.

▪ It’s much easier to tolerate differences when dissenters are 10 percent of the population. With 40 percent or more opposed to anything and everything, there are 100 million people determined to undermine whatever is decided, not 10 million begrudgingly accepting the will of the majority. Consensus-building is replaced with self-serving research and big-data manipulation even to the point of spiteful sabotage. With fewer common denominators, it’s easier to make unrealistic promises than to solve complex equations together.

Maybe our new mantra should be “seek first to understand and then to be understood”?