2 June—“Think about this. Donald Trump gave up fame, fortune, and a very comfortable life to try to save America from the forces that are trying to tear it down right now.”

That’s Laura Ingraham mouthing off and as usual she’s full of shit. In this assertion she’s constipated by the very facts. Because in no way did Trump give up fame, fortune, or a very comfortable life; and he certainly didn’t do anything at all to save America from anything at all. But what else can we expect from Laura Ingraham?

On the other hand, Demosthenes, in his Fourth Philippic oration way back in 341 BC Athens, predicted the Trump perversion and suggested a solution, though we might find it a bit drastic today. To spare you the Attic or Ancient Greek, here’s the pertinent paragraph in English:

“You must bear in mind that this will be a life-and-death struggle, and the men who have sold themselves to Philip [read Trump] must be publicly beaten to death [figuratively, anyway, in present-day America], because it’s impossible, utterly impossible to put down any foreign enemies until you’ve punished the ones in your own country. But if you let these domestic enemies prevent you from doing the right thing, you must fail against the others. What do you imagine is his [Trump’s] motive in arousing you now to outrage? I think there’s no other way to describe his conduct. In deceiving the others [his followers], he at least confers benefits upon them, but in your case he is resorting to threats.”

[In the interest of pedantic accuracy, modern scholars with nothing better to do attribute what’s known as Demosthenes’ Fourth (and last) Philippic to Anaximenes of Lampsacus. Like it matters. In all events, Demosthenes’ Philippics were attacks on Philip II of Macedon, denouncing his imperialist ambitions, in defense of Athenian liberty, such as it may have been.

The philippic—a fiery, often invective-laden tirade condemning a politician—has proved popular and often successful to this day. And the word is in current use, if only among cognoscenti and literati. It must be said that Donald Trump, who probably doesn’t know a philippic from a philatelist, himself is an experienced and damn good practitioner of the philippic art.]