Lefties thought the silver lining of a Trump presidency would be an anti-establishment government – now they're eating their words

Appointments include someone who once served as a judge under Reagan, a Fox News commentator and a Tea Party cheerleader who 'can't wait' to roll back diplomatic relations with Iran

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Not even in my boldest of spirits could I have stomached hearing some of my erstwhile allies on the left proclaim that the spectacle of a United States thrown into chaos was tonic for the soul.

These are the people who decided that America needed to have a long hard look at itself, and celebrated Trump’s election because of it. They pronounced – with a certain want of gallantry – that they were willing to see the keys to the Oval Office handed over to a capricious huckster and chauvinist if it meant teaching a lesson to the venal establishmentarians of DC. After all, demonstrating that Washington is corrupt to the core is the highest of all moral and political principles, according to them.

If you are able to dig through the nihilism of this position and excavate the canard at its core, you will find what is offered as a “silver lining”: that the Trump victory will necessitate a “shake-up” of American politics. That the absolute calamity of an administration of misfits, cynics, and anti-establishment types will force Americans into recalibrating their political system, and somehow that will be advantageous to the left. That somehow Trump’s disaster will end up the ironic key to unlocking the door to a more progressive political future.

But of course the hostage that was sold to fortune in this credulous way now lies in the dumpster with his throat cut. The administration being prepared by President-elect Trump is actually a salad of some of the most fanatical elements of the Republican Party and its most well-to-do. It’s set to be the wealthiest in history, made up of hedge fund billionaires, former Wall Street bankers, and others who have lived dauntlessly from the fat of the land.

Since he was elected, Trump has given presidential benediction for some of the most senior offices in the land to an objectionable cast. Nominated for the honourable position of Attorney General – that is, the chief law enforcer of the United States – is Jefferson Sessions, a rather uncouth chap whose former colleagues have sworn in a court of law that he used the “n-word” and once glibly intoned that he thought the Ku Klux Klan were “OK, until I learned that they smoked marijuana.”

After being picked by President Reagan to serve as judge on the US District County for Southern Alabama, Sessions made a failed bid to prosecute three voting rights activists who were working to increase African American voter turnout and registration.

Other appointments include Kathleen “KT” McFarland – another Reagan-era acolyte and Fox News commentator – as Deputy National Security Advisor, and Tea Party cheerleader Mike Pompeo as director of the CIA. Pompeo has proclaimed that he “looks forward” to “rolling back” the Iran nuclear deal, a historic monument in diplomacy that was achieved after years of arduous talks which brought the promise of slowly normalising relations with Iran.

And of course, the survey would not be complete without acknowledging the Catholic-inspired zealotry of Vice President Mike Pence who, with divine permission, has signed every anti-abortion bill that has landed on his desk as governor of Indiana.

These politicians and pundits, while an unsavoury bunch, have been part of “the establishment” for decades, serving in the main legislative and judiciary organs of the United States’ government. The only difference is that previously, they were compelled to stay on their best behaviour by the noble conventions and norms attained through struggles for civil rights.

Now, however, along with more mainstream officials such as House Speaker Paul Ryan cosying up to Trump, they are set to call the shots once more. Those elements of the left who willed the means and wished for this end will not be able to absolve themselves from guilt when the going gets tougher.