Trump isn’t on the right or the left, as the spectrum is typically defined in American politics. His campaign presumes a different spectrum: those who favor and benefit from globalization and its consequences versus those who fear and consider themselves victims of globalization and its consequences. In this, Trump stands shoulder to shoulder with forces in the U.K. that backed Brexit, as well as with anti-establishment populists who have been making gains in recent months and years across the European continent.

Can Clinton win in November by refusing to play along with Trump’s anti-globalist reframing of the contest? From the standpoint of standard Democratic strategy, this would involve staying relentlessly on the campaign’s message while dismissing Trump as a racist lunatic who’s both unfit for office and cynically whipping up irrational fears in the minds of voters. To make this case, the candidate and her running mate (and their center-left media allies) would consistently counsel calm, marshalling evidence to push back against Trump’s pitch-dark convention speech, showing that the economy isn’t that bad, that free-trade deals are usually good for the economy, that immigration levels are dropping, that crime isn’t rising, and that terrorism isn’t something to be overly concerned about.

There’s just one problem with this approach: The evidence doesn’t support it, at least not unambiguously. Despite economic growth and an unemployment rate under 5 percent, workforce participation rates are low and wage growth remain stagnant.