As if anyone, either in America or around the world was ever in any doubt, the US elections prove once again that the greatest democracy on earth is also one of the most bitterly divided.

We know that voting in these elections, perhaps more than any over recent decades, was determined quite starkly on the grounds of race, education and economic prosperity. If you happen to be a well-educated woman of colour, or if you happen to be a white unemployed ex-coal miner, your vote is more predictable than for a long time.

“Reaching out” is what American politicians tend to speak of, but the truth is that they have to reach out to only a few. The number of “swing states” and, within them, swing districts and counties is smaller than ever it was.

The election of 2000, in which Al Gore won the popular vote but so narrowly lost the White House on the way votes turned in a few square miles of Florida, was an omen of closer elections to come. For Americans who live in that state, in North Carolina, in Michigan, in Arizona, in Iowa and in a few more places – and the more marginal polling districts within those states – the Democrats and the Republicans can barely leave you alone. If you don’t happen to live in a marginal “toss-up” state, say if you are in Wyoming (Republican) or Washington DC (Democrat), then no one will pay you very much attention.

This polarisation is reflected elsewhere in the American body politic. In the Senate, just a few seats can make the difference between an active administration that can get things done at home and abroad, and one that cannot.

Such is the modern day partisanship evident in both houses. The old arrangements “across the aisle” that could see federal budgets and international treaties passed, albeit with an element of the pork barrel about them, are unlikely to reassert themselves (although the April’s agreement on climate change was a welcome exception). It means that America – a land that the world still looks to as to a beacon on a hill – is gripped by stasis rather than being a dynamic engine of reform and change.

Dominated by ideological obsession overlaying traditional sectional and geographical interests, Congress looks less fit for purpose than ever. Even the Supreme Court, by dint of overly partisan appointments by successive presidents, rests on a knife edge between liberalism and literalism.

The language and events of the 2016 contest give little cause for hope for those who wish to see America come together to sort out its issues. Sometimes, and rightly, held up as an example of how to engage sometimes apathetic voters in the democratic process, the most recent exercise gave us two candidates who were astonishingly unpopular, even among many of their respective parties’ traditional loyalists, let alone the political establishment. When so many voters wished that Hillary and Donald could both lose, something is wrong with the system.

US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Show all 12 1 /12 US Presidential election: key moments in pictures US Presidential election: key moments in pictures The 2005 Access Hollywood video which showed Mr Trump bragging to Billy Bush NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 20: Donald Trump (R) is interviewed by Billy Bush of Access Hollywood at "Celebrity Apprentice" Red Carpet Event at Trump Tower on January 20, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images) Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Hillary Clinton and her health concerns NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 11: Democratic presidental nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives with an unidentified woman at the September 11 Commemoration Ceremony at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum on September 11, 2016 in New York City. Hillary Clinton left a September 11 Commemoration Ceremony early after feeling overheated and went to her daughter's house to rest. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Hillary Clinton and her health concerns Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton gets in her van after leaving her daughter's apartment building after resting onSeptember 11, 2016 in New York, New York. Clinton departed from a remembrance ceremony on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks after feeling "overheated," but was later doing "much better," her campaign said. / AFP / Brendan Smialowski (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images) Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Mr Trump suggests gun-supporters could kill Hillary Clinton to prevent her from picking the supreme court justices U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends the National Rifle Association's NRA-ILA Leadership Forum during their annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., May 20, 2016. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein - RTSF81G Reuters US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Melania Trump plagiarises Michelle Obama’s speech Melania Trump, wife of presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, addresses delegates on the first day of the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. The Republican Party opened its national convention, kicking off a four-day political jamboree that will anoint billionaire Donald Trump as its presidential nominee. / AFP / Robyn BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Mr Trump said that judge Gonzalo Curiel would not be able to rule fairly, as he was of Mexican heritage Gonzalo Curiel - Mexican judge Trump insulted United States Federal Court/AP US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Donald Trump anxious over securing black vote Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump looks back at supporters holding signs at a campaign rally in Lakeland, Florida, U.S., October 12, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar Reuters US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Hillary Clinton and concerns about securing black vote TOPSHOT - New American Makia Nunes kisses a cardboard cutout of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton as volunteers and supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Clinton were on hand outside the Los Angeles Convention Center, to greet and help recruit new voters following their Naturalization Ceremony on October 18, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. / AFP / Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images) Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Pope Francis Questions Donald Trump's Christianity Pope Francis leads a mass for the Jubilee of Inmates, on November 6, 2016 at St Peter's basilica in Vatican. One thousand prisoners -- including some lifers -- take part in a special event at the Vatican this weekend, along with 3,000 family members, prison staff and volunteers. The prisoners from 12 countries will had yesterday the opportunity to confess and walk through the "Holy Door" at Saint Peter's Basilica, a Jubilee tradition by which Catholics can ask forgiveness for their sins. / AFP / VINCENZO PINTO (Photo credit should read VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images) Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Donald Trump and his relentless remarks against Mexican people View of an "Alebrije" -Mexican folk art traditional sculptures representing fantastical creatures - with a figure representing US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump during the tenth Monumental "Alebrijes" Parade and contest organized by the Folk Art Museum, on October 22, 2016 in Mexico City. More than two hundreds "Alebrijes" take part in the event. / AFP / YURI CORTEZ (Photo credit should read YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images) Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures Donald Trump and the sexual assault allegations LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 22: Attorney Gloria Allred holds a photo of jessica drake (R) with Donald Trump, taken in 2006 during an event where Drake alleges now-Republican presidential candidate Trump behaved in an sexually inappropriate way toward her, on October 22, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. This is the first news conference at which Drake has spoken to the public about her allegations against the candidate. Trump has been falling further behind Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton in the polls as women continue to come forth to accuse him of inappropriate sexual behavior. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) Getty US Presidential election: key moments in pictures FBI director announced that there would be no charges for Hillary Clinton amid email scandal US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign rally at the Pasco-Hernando State College in Dade City, Florida, on November 1, 2016. FBI agents are plumbing hundreds of thousands of emails in search of potentially incriminating evidence against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, in a high pressure probe seven days before the US presidential election. What will come out of it and when is not known, but the impact of the FBI's bombshell discovery of a new trove of Clinton emails is already reverberating in the neck-and-neck race for the White House. / AFP / JEWEL SAMAD (Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) Getty

The Republican Party in particular has ceased to look or sound very much like the nation it purports to lead. The role of money, too, has distorted the democratic choice, though less grotesquely this time round.

The health of American democracy matters to the rest of the world, not least because it was American democracy that, on more than one occasion, has secured democracy elsewhere in the world. Americans may tire of foreigners lecturing them about their foreign policy and suggesting how they should vote in their own elections, yet what America does, which battles it chooses to fight and how it fights them, affects everyone else in the world.