If you ever despair about the state of our local politics I advise turning on CNN for a taste of just how bad things really could be.
That Donald Trump was able to behave in such an unpresidential manner for the best part of his four year term of office, and yet still garner over 70 million votes speaks of the deep divisions in the United States.
A country where racism and a huge disparity of wealth and opportunity has always been considered acceptable.
Where healthcare and justice are bought and paid for, and those with no means face dying from treatable illnesses.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump a "deranged, unhinged, dangerous president". That's probably one of the nicer comments since his supporters stormed Capitol Hill last week.
Trump loyalists broke into Pelosi's office, forcing her young interns to barricade themselves in a room and hide under a table in fear of their lives.
It took the death of Capitol police officer Brian Sicknick, killed after being attacked by rioters, to finally bring Trump's reign to an end.
Before the Washington rally and Trump's final inflammatory speech that sparked the riots, he was still being touted as a possible Republican candidate for 2024.
Instead, not only is he unlikely to ever hold public office again, but he is not even allowed to hold a Twitter account after being banned from the social media platform.
The coverage of the American election was addictive viewing from this side of the Atlantic. In this pandemic age, the news reports were more gripping than a Netflix box set, albeit watched with equal parts shock and horror.
One Twitter user joked: "Remember the old days, stilettos, all the fake tan, going out on a Friday night, now you're sitting in watching CNN and know the name of the senator for Kentucky".
But behind the highly editorialised US news coverage, the constant alerts and range of increasingly strange, eccentric and outspoken commentators from all sections of American society, lies a very sobering warning to the rest of the world.
For this is not a drama series with increasingly implausible plotlines, but actual politicians in one of the largest and most powerful democracies in the world.
Those who hold racist and far right views, the people in the crowd in Washington last week, wearing Nazi themed t-shirts, one wearing a Camp Auschwitz sweatshirt, the violent 'Proud Boys', have all been encouraged and empowered by the Trump administration.
Showing it takes just one tyrannical leader, who is able to manipulate enough members of a population, to cause a dangerous and unstable situation that could easily turn into a mass movement that jeopardises global stability.
Trump supporters call themselves 'patriots', the same language used by English far right and a small but determined group of Irish copycats who emulate global movements growing in power, partly because of the use of social media to connect them.
But they must not be dismissed simply as "crackpots'', because as recent events in America have shown us, to allow these people to spread their message of hate unabated brings consequences.
Facebook and Twitter have for too long allowed their platforms to be used by such agitators to incite violence and spread dangerous conspiracies.
The warnings of those who have been following this phenomenon have until now fallen on deaf ears.
Events in America seem to have brought that to a sudden head with both platforms deleting the accounts of thousands of extremists, among them the outgoing president of the United States.
Trump has divided his country, he did it purposely and with intent because angry people vote, angry people who have been made to feel they are having something taken from them by a power hungry president were more likely to come out in numbers, and come out they did.
Fortunately for America, those who could see what was happening, those who feared for the safety of their families and the future of their children also came out to vote in even greater numbers.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will spend their time in office under serious threat from the supporters of Trump.
Many of whom, thanks to the insane American gun laws, have amassed huge arsenals of weapons.
They no longer have the commander in chief on their side, but they do still pose a threat and the damage caused by this period in American political history will take much longer to heal than it took to create.
