Since Ronald Reagan resurrected the practice of using pseudo-religious language to demonize his political enemies we have seen the return of the classical political practice of fear and smear.
Allying himself to Rupert Murdoch's news empire Reagan used the media to smear the icons of the 1960s - namely John F. Kennedy and John Lennon.
His first act was to rename Cape Kennedy Cape Canaveral. And there followed a series of negative stories about Kennedy's private life.
And his claim that the Hippies were agents of Satan demonized a whole generation.
Using the Pope and the Religious Right he succeeded in destroying his political and cultural enemies.
But fear and smear is a negative practice.
It may not last forever.
The truth will win out in the end.
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