The unthinkable has happened - a person with the most odious views was able to defeat someone who was hailed as the most qualified candidate to have ever run for the presidency.

This outcome is a severe indictment of the practices and ethics of a political, economic and media elite which is so confident of its hold on the system that it put up the most tainted candidate to have run for office in decades because it considered Hillary Clinton as one of their own.

Never before has a presidential candidate run for office while facing a serious criminal investigation, which reveals the cocky hubris of the establishment, both Democratic and Republican, in believing it can do as it wishes when its united.

Many people had pointed out that if Trump wins, the blame should fall upon the Democratic party and the media for having unfairly tipped the scale against the promise of Sanders, who would have won against Trump.

Add to the above mix the more central fact that the corporate elite has been ruthlessly enriching itself, through its financial hold of lawmakers, at the expense of ordinary Americans who lead tenuous and financially insecure lives and feel that no one in power looks out for them.

Another central cause of Trump's triumph was the media, which initially built him up in the primaries, even as it derided Sanders on the Democratic side.

But media began a relentless, one-sided campaign against Trump once he faced Hillary. What particularly alienated many people was journalists' openly mocking Trump, which many saw as being directed at them.

There could be some good news as well. Trump's recognition of how militarily interventions in the Middle East have backfired, and his desire to work with Russia in the process, could be a game changer.

Trump's presidency will also shake up the complacency of the system, in part through incapacity to address his base's serious economic woes, and lead to a new search for solutions to declining incomes.

This would be a boon to progressive organizers, while a Clinton candidacy would have strengthened the system and weakened the progressive cause through the extraordinary support she enjoys from both the parties and their billionaires.

In all my years I have never seen the entire national elite, Democrats and Republicans alike, come together behind an issue as they did this year for Hillary.

Time will tell if Trump will try to heal the wounds and try to unite the people of America. One can only hope that some of the media grabbing rhetoric will be left behind and we can start to see policies that will help those who have lost so much over the last few decades both in the US and the wider world.