Early in the morning on the day after the US election my eldest daughter came down the stairs as normal on her way to breakfast holding her teddy bear, Umpa Ted. ‘Who won,’ she asked and before I could respond she said, ‘it’s Trump isn’t it?’ She put Umpa Ted’s paws to his eyes and put him face down next to me. ‘He’s crying,’ she said and walked off.

All through this Presidential campaign I have wanted my young daughters to take an interest in this great political event. I love American politics, especially Presidential politics, and wanted to share that interest with them. To think about the issues, the personalities, the processes, and they have done their best to humor me. Night after night we have watched the news together and night after night it has become a more and more uncomfortable experience for me as a parent. The early evening news as a PG event is a new experience. For what Donald Trump said, for what he did, and for what he said he did and said, as a parent it has been a grueling experience.

I suspect I am not alone in having found it so.

‘Campaign in prose and govern in poetry’ the saying goes. Politics is a tough, rough and grueling business. It needs to be. People who want to lead and govern should be tested. Their ideas and policies should be challenged. American politics in particular is the roughest and toughest of enterprises. Donald Trump acknowledged this candidly in his victory speech earlier today and he has practiced such politics with gusto. What his Presidency will be like time will tell. The scale of his victory seizing not only the White House but having coat tails long enough to pile up substantial Republican majorities in both the Senate and Congress is impressive. The effect of his campaign however is more immediate.

It’s worth noting that in some ways this Presidential campaign has not plumbed the same depths as, say, Jack Kennedy’s in 1960 when it was widely thought the then voters of West Virginia were plied with money to vote for him. No one disputes the result today as they did when George W. Bush snatched the White House from Al Gore. Chads, hanging or otherwise, have not troubled the 2016 election. Donald Trump won the primaries and the general election by persuading more people to vote for him than anyone he was opposing. It is, for better or for worse, him and his policies that more people have preferred to the alternative they were offered.

Donald Trump's challenge is whether he can escape the tone and tenor of his campaign to fashion a credible and sustainable programme for government. Can he build the political consensus he will need in Washington, and which the system of American government requires, to actually get anything done? Majorities in both Houses will not automatically translate into unquestioned support.

Coming on top of the vote for Brexit Trump's victory poses great challenges to democratic politics and politicians, but not to democracy. Brexit and Trump triumphed through proper democratic processes. Both victories were won in their systems. In Europe key national elections in Austria, Germany and especially France will be the next test for western democratic politics. In France in particular Marie Le Pen must be feeling a new sense of confidence. A victory for her would be a profound challenge to the current European settlement. The great challenge is how politics can address the concerns being expressed. How to harness the infectious energy of anti-establishmentarianism to positive purpose is now the central political challenge of this generation.