Much of this election’s coverage has, rightly or wrongly, focused on the candidacy and character of Donald Trump. The character of Republican nominee is seen as a threat to the foundations of the American republic. His supporters, so the argument goes, are casting their ballots on the basis of an irrational fear of the ‘other’ and a wistful yearning for the status quo ante. Making America great again, in this analysis, amounts to little more than thinly-veiled dog-whistle politics.

But these perspectives miss out on the important issues that Trump’s campaign has brought to the fore (and, by his conduct, done a tremendous disservice to). It was, after all, issues that brought him into politics. In a 1988 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Trump noted that he was “tired of seeing the country ripped off” but warned that “if it got so bad, I wouldn’t want to rule anything out” on a potential presidential run. It seems that, despite accusations of flip-flopping on policy levelled at him, Trump has been remarkably consistent on a number of big-picture issues which have gained momentum since the 1980s.

On trade, Trump’s mercantilist views tap into a growing well of anti-free trade sentiment, which most recently has forced Hillary Clinton to harden her trade rhetoric and even, during the 2008 primary season, led then-Senator Obama to promise a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The reasons for Trump's feelings are evident: US manufacturing employment has collapsed, now constituting just 7.7 per cent of American jobs, while at the same time American exports have been massively outpaced by China. Combine a record $365.7 billion trade deficit in 2015 with a national debt approaching $20 trillion, and there is a compelling case for a radical shake-up of US trade and economic policy.

Trump’s zero-sum view of international relations and trade, where for others to benefit the US has to lose, has put him at odds with a political establishment that sees the US as being the world’s indispensable nation. But he might well strike a chord with an electorate that sees things getting worse and wants to, as a young Arkansas governor declared in 1992, make America great again.