Donald Trump is in the middle of the biggest pivot in modern American political history. Having all but secured the Republican presidential nomination after the May 3 Indiana primary, Mr. Trump began his very own “Etch-a-Sketch” redesign. On May 12, he started to pivot away from his Muslim ban. But don’t take my word for it: “Sure, I’d back off on it,” Mr. Trump said after Greta Van Susteren asked him about his proposed Muslim ban, “I’d like to back off it as soon as possible.”

Last week Mr. Trump pivoted on his tax plan too. “I have to negotiate now with senators and congressmen and lots of — the fact that I put in a plan, it really is a floor, ” he said.

I want to make this crystal clear. If Mr. Trump succeeds in this pivot, I see basically no way for the Democrats to hold the White House. And the Democrats are now the last wall — no pun intended — protecting the world from this man.

However, if we look at Hillary Clinton — whom I support — we are seeing precisely the wrong way of dealing with Mr. Trump.

I don’t want to hear any more about “staying above the fray.” Sixteen other Republicans have more than demonstrated how that strategy will turn out.

If an alternative view is not strongly and decisively presented, Mr. Trump’s view will dominate our discourse, as well as the press coverage, and he will continually polish and adjust his view to better conceal its more racist and sexist elements.

Has anyone here dealt with a bully before? Please stop reading this, and think back to a bully you remember from school. What put an end to the bully’s behavior? Was it people who said nothing and stayed “above the fray?” Or was it someone that stood up to the bully?

If Hillary Clinton is to become President of the United States — which I think she should be — she needs to stand up not only for herself, but also for others. Isn’t her slogan “Fighting for us,” after all?

Yes, I am familiar with Secretary Clinton’s incredible work for the public. I know about everything from how she helped rape victims in the DRC to how she helped organize international and domestic efforts in the 2010 Haiti earthquake’s aftermath to how she supported the victims of 9/11 in New York to how she raised a family under a scrutiny few have known. I think she is really talented.

However, consider the following:

The Republican nominee, for President of the United States, said: “Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the woman’s card. And the beautiful thing is, women don’t like her.”

I can’t begin to explain how offensive this is. How would you feel if someone said that to your mother? Or your daughter? Or you? In front of millions of Americans, at a victory rally, no less, when most candidates are as gracious as possible.

What was Sec. Clinton’s response?

Did she state that Mr. Trump has a problem with strong women and cite his interactions with Rosie O’Donnell, Megyn Kelly, Carly Fiorina or Heidi Cruz?

Did she call him out as sexist right then and there?

Did she enumerate her numerous accomplishments with confidence and gusto?

Or did she say: “[I]f fighting for women’s healthcare and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in”?

I guarantee you that if someone told President Barack Obama that all he had going for him was that he was a black man, and that he was playing the race card, his response would not be “Deal me in!”

The correct response is not to agree that you are somehow playing the “woman card,” but that playing this card actually means that you are fighting for equality.

The correct response is to ask the bully, “Mr. Trump, why do women intimidate you? Is that why you said that any woman who has an abortion should get ‘some form of punishment’? Did you even think about cases of rape or incest?”

And then, Secretary Clinton should turn to the nation and say: “To any woman who’s ever been judged by her gender and not her ability, I won’t stop fighting for you, and I won’t let this trash slow me down.”

That is how you respond to Mr. Trump properly.

And you don’t stop there.

You do not let Mr. Trump claim to back off of his Muslim ban, after he posted a written statement on his official website that says, and I quote, “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” I would add that this statement contains, in addition to the obvious issues, the paradox that Mr. Trump is running to be himself the country’s representative. In other words, Mr. Trump advocates banning Muslims until he, as the country’s head representative, “figure[s] out what is going on,” but the only policy he has provided to “figure out what is going on” is the Muslim ban.

The Clinton campaign should reach out to every Muslim member of our armed forces — those alive as well as the families of those who paid the last full measure of devotion — and remind America of how horrible, ill-conceived and un-American Mr. Trump’s discriminatory and anti-religious freedom Muslim ban is. And I want to see a 30-minute infomercial.

I’ll provide one more timely example. Remember when Mr. Trump tweeted out the taco bowl on Cinco de Mayo two weeks ago?

That’s of course the time when he said, “The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!”

Again, this is insanely offensive. Yet the Clinton campaign completely missed on their response. The correct response is not: “’I love Hispanics!’ — Trump, 52 minutes ago… ‘They’re gonna be deported.’ — Trump, yesterday.”

Yet that is what the Clinton campaign tweeted back.

Do you know why this is the wrong response?

Well, suppose that instead of a taco there was a watermelon in the photo, and instead of “Hispanics!”, Mr. Trump wrote “Blacks!” The issue is not just that Mr. Trump is self-contradictory but rather that he is stereotyping and condescending. It’s about dignity.

Mr. Trump is fine deporting 11 million people — something even President Ronald Reagan refused to do — because he does not treat them as human beings with inherent dignity. They’re not human beings fleeing murderous gangs or human beings escaping human traffickers; they’re “illegals” to Donald Trump. Or, as evinced in his Cinco de Mayo tweet, Mr. Trump looks at someone who is Hispanic and thinks “taco bowls!”

Mr. Trump’s disregard for dignity is apparent whenever he claims “I employ so many Latinos” as a reason that he is pro-Latino.

Such a statement indicates that he does not view certain people as truly equal to himself but rather as people who are under his control, who, at the end of the day, must answer to him and who, at the end of the day, he can hire and he can fire as he so pleases, like it’s an episode of The Apprentice.

Someone (read: Secretary Clinton) needs to explain to Mr. Trump that a minority is not just someone he may hire to do his work and fire when he pleases. Again, it’s about dignity. People have dignity, and they deserve to be treated with respect.

Until we see a stronger response from the Hillary campaign, we are going to get more of this trash from Mr. Trump.

And that’s just what we’re getting. Now, Mr. Trump, thrice married, blames Secretary Clinton for affairs she did not have.

And her response? “I’m running my campaign. I’m not running against him. He’s doing a fine job of doing that himself.”

Well, by now, you know how I feel about this  kind of a response.

I’ll just put it this way: Our 2016 presidential election is a choice between two people, one of whom is a bully. If that doesn’t mean “running against,” then I don’t know what does.

To conclude, I am proud of Sec. Clinton, and I’m with her.

She has been treated horribly, in my opinion, and sometimes people forget that she’s still a human being with feelings who is putting herself through a really hard process.

My personal advice is that what Secretary Clinton probably says about Mr. Trump privately, behind closed doors, is exactly what she needs to say about him publicly.

And I would humbly offer the following as well: No matter how worried she might be about her so-called “unfavorables,” they can’t be higher than Mr. Trump’s. For instance, Secretary Clinton has yet to make fun of and impersonate someone with a disability in front of millions of people.

I think that if Hillary just speaks her mind, and stands up to Mr. Trump, she will not only win this election, but she we also teach us all an important lesson about how to deal with a bully.

— George Hayward, JD/MBA joint-degree candidate

Contact George Hayward at ghayward ‘at’ stanford.edu