Unspeakable Monsters, I

This morning I was reading in a Catholic periodical when I encountered an off-handed and unironic reference to Ronald Reagan as a “monster.”  It was not surprising, in the sense that the periodical in question is not politically conservative (“mere Catholicity” might be a good description of its political outlook, to the extent that it has one); but it caught me off-guard nonetheless.  Was Reagan any more monstrous than, say, Kennedy or Nixon or Bill Clinton?  I had to spend a few minutes on Wikipedia just to be sure that I hadn’t missed anything.  Indeed, that arbiter of modern history gave me no particularly monstrous details, aside from the economic ones of which I was already aware; and since the sole elaboration on the “monster” reference was to “individualism,” I must assume that Reagan was monster for supply-side reasons.

That again brings me to other presidents.  I suppose, then, that Calvin Coolidge was a monster, although he is so nearly forgotten that perhaps he does not count.  Does Clinton’s welfare reform qualify him as a monster too?  But, without looking into the details, I doubt that bill was anything as sweeping as the tax cuts under Reagan.  Modified monstrosity, perhaps.

Now of course, I am being ironic myself; and, furthermore, I’m guilty of precisely the sin that irritated me with the author who took a potshot at Reagan: I am being snide about a public figure with whom I disagree, without actually presenting evidence or arguments that would sway anyone who did not already agree with me.  It’s actually a good measure of where you stand politically: does “Reagan was a monster” or “Clinton was a monster” raise your blood pressure?  Or both, or neither?