What worries the right about this is that by being sculpted in marble, Reagan may be stripped of the traits that made him so revered among conservatives and despised by liberals. In other words, if the 40th president is all things to all people, he means nothing to anyone.

“To only look at the imagery of Reagan is to see only half the picture of the man because he was a very strong advocate for conservatism,” said Ed Meese, Reagan’s Attorney General and the keeper of the conservative flame for his old boss…

Citing the same concerns that have been expressed about King on the left, Shirley said: “If you make these men so iconic, they lose their individuality, their essence.”

In a Washington Times op-ed Friday, Shirley wrote that “myths can blind one to the facts about a man.”

“Worse, they can be perpetuated to achieve a purpose in the name of some hidden agenda,” he continued, taking exception to what he called “the pernicious myth” that Reagan and former Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill had been friends.