Maybe the single biggest lie that Trump and the MAGA movement is guilty of is that of characterizing their followers as “patriots.” Regularly, fundraising and other appeals to the MAGA base address their remarks to “Dear Patriot.”

Better, “Dear Putin-Lover” or “Dear Traitor” instead.

The best antidote to Trump-MAGA madness is a strong dose of what has constituted real patriotism in our nation’s proud history, and I guarantee you it’s not running Confederate flags through the Capitol or defecating on nationally sacred spaces, such as happened during the January 6 insurrection.

I referenced earlier the historic “Four Freedoms” speech of Franklin D. Roosevelt on the eve of America’s entry into the Second World War and the morale boost that provided for the entire decade of the 1940s in America. I have recently added those Four Freedoms — the freedoms of speech, religion, from want, and from fear — to the title banner of the Falls Church News-Press.

Now, I reprint the nationally-broadcast prayer that FDR delivered on the eve of D-Day, June 6, 1944, when more than 150,000 U.S. and Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy for what finally turned the tide of the war against Hitler’s genocidal tyranny, and 4,500 died. It is very slightly edited.

FDR intoned before the nation, “Almighty God, Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

“They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

“They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest-until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

“For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

“Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
“And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas — whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them — help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

“As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

“Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces. And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

“And, O Lord, give us Faith. Give us Faith in Thee; Faith in our sons; Faith in each other; Faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moments let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

“With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogancies. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister Nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace, a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen.”