they are still changing

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

Specifically here, I'm confused about the 'blasting' over a Reagan reference in the Democratic primaries. Several amusing points developed.

1) Reagan being an agent of change but 'being openly intolerant of unions' is somehow not being an agent of change. Unions used to be an agent of change. I'm not sure what they are anymore, but the fact that he was 'openly intolerant' doesn't mean much by itself.
2) Tax structure that 'favors the rich'. Last time I checked the rich pay more in taxes than the middle class. Incredibly more. In any case, the 'struggling' middle class has since the 1980s become considerably richer. American standards of living are ridiculously high in comparison to other countries. Complaining about this is pretty silly.

And then the original quotation that somehow brought on these spurious remarks "I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not," Obama said. "He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing." --- Which is basically an analysis of history. When it is considered that Vladimir Putin was Time's man of the year this year and Josef Stalin was 3 times, it's not necessary for a historian to agree with the types of change that occur, merely to understand the agents who help bring them about, or who capitalize on the need and timing for it. Bill Clinton pretty obviously did not do much. Those years spent searching for a 'legacy' were of no use to causing real and effective changes in the country and it's dynamics. Reagan, for better and worse, did.