Watergate, like the Civil War and Red Scare, was a moment of national turmoil. This time however, piety was being used to distract the masses and, as is so often the case, to cloak a criminal in the mantle of religion. The next two presidents, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, abjured the phrase “God Bless America,” perhaps seeing it for what it was or associating it with Nixon. But Ronald Reagan saw a powerful political weapon and used it to curry favor with the voters and, presumably, his deity. Reagan revived Nixon’s Watergate distractor and did so early, when he accepted the Republican
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