Alison O'Connor: Millions of Americans have abandoned the act of kindness 

They voted knowing what sort of a monster their ballot might help to keep in the White House, writes Alison O'Connor

This vote has shown that one half of the population has high levels of comfort with their own racism, care little about who dies in a pandemic and put economic matters far ahead of human decency.

It was a quote attributed to the novelist Henry James which came to mind as I watched the full-on results coverage of the US presidential election in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Tensions were running high, inevitably. Everything is in veritable capitals anyway when it comes to in-your-face US cable news television coverage. Never more so than when there is an election count going on.