IT is often said that although we share a common language, the UK and US are very different countries. Never is that more obvious than during this year’s presidential election.

For many years we on this side of the Atlantic may have balked at the brash cult of personality favoured by our American cousins during their election campaigns, but there was always something alluring about the razzmatazz of the occasion. This time has been different, however: the aggressive, at times hate-filled battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton had many of us switching off in disgust weeks ago.

Mr Trump’s rhetoric throughout the campaign, with its racist, xenophobic and misogynistic undertones, the very personal attacks on his opponent, surely represents a nadir in US politics. But despite, perhaps even because of this, Mrs Clinton has struggled to shake off her image as the corrupt establishment candidate and ran a notably lacklustre campaign that has failed to capture the imagination of many within her own party, never mind others.

But one of these two will move into the White House. And the America they will govern will be more angry, cynical and divided than ever before, a country that is becoming even more disconnected from itself; some would say dangerously so. One need only look at the discourse around guns over the last few weeks; fearing even the flimsiest of controls on their right to bear arms should Mrs Clinton win - a narrative gleefully stoked by Trump supporters - many in the dust bowl states have been stockpiling guns and preparing for a stand-off. It doesn’t bode well.

So where does weary Uncle Sam, which seems to have lost faith in the political process, go from here? Whichever candidate becomes the 45th president, their first and toughest task will be to find a way to bring this vast and varied nation together. The popularity of Donald Trump in itself highlights that millions of particularly white working class Americans feel brutalised and let down by a country they were brought up to have complete faith in. At the same time, as the recent Black Lives Matter against police brutality campaign shows, many of the country’s African-American citizens feel equally as disenfranchised, and there is little doubt that race remains America’s most open wound, one that stubbornly refuses to heal. Indeed, it is arguably even more divisive now than it was eight years ago when Barack Obama became the first black president.

Mrs Clinton, of course, is still viewed with suspicion by many of all creeds and colours and may struggle to bring about unity should she win. To be frank, however, it is impossible at this juncture to see how Mr Trump, who seemed to take a bizarre pleasure in offending female, Hispanic and African-American voters, could ever hope to achieve such a task. It may well be that these are the very constituencies that will keep him out of the presidency; in key states like Florida became soon became clear yesterday that women and Hispanic voters were going to the polls in their droves.

If they do keep Mr Trump out of the White House, many around the world – including the vast majority in this country - will heave a huge sigh of relief. The current geopolitical situation is fraught with tension: the violence in Syria and Iraq, the potential fracturing of Europe post-Brexit, the posturing of Russian president Vladimir Putin and the threat of global terrorism are only the darkest of many clouds sitting on the horizon.

America is, for the moment at least,still the world’s most powerful and influential nation, and as such its president has a key leadership role to play in all of these events. Mrs Clinton has already shown her mettle on the international stage and the continuity and experience she would offer would surely be welcomed by most. Indeed it surely speaks volumes that Russia is one of the only countries in the world to have openly endorsed Mr Trump’s candidacy.

Over the next 24 hours we will start to get the first indications of how both winner and loser of this race intends to deal with the result. Throughout his campaign Mr Trump and his supporters have been keen to propagate the myth that the media and the “establishment” will not allow him to become president, that they will somehow fix it for Mrs Clinton to win. We should hope, if she does prevail, that Mr Trump displays the sort of dignity so far lacking in his countenance and puts an end to such conspiratorial nonsense; the last thing a tired and divided America - and indeed the rest of the world – needs right now is a protracted legal battle for the presidency.

And if it is indeed to be Mrs President for the first time in America’s history, then we must hope against hope that Hillary Clinton can bring to the role the sense of hope, inspiration and purpose and that was sorely lacking during this long, painful and hugely damaging campaign.