I wish I could feel sympathy, but I don’t. The Reagan generation did this to themselves, and the rest of us have to suffer with them.
I think maybe the description is a bit harsh, but for real, they eagerly helped prevent or overturn just about any social policy that didn’t benefit them. And now we’re stuck with the consequences.
I know a boomer couple that is extremely conservative. Lived in a nice house that got foreclosed on when the guy took out a loan and couldn’t pay it back. They berated their kids for being “failures” their whole lives.
Their kids are too poor to help them and the social services they opposed or helped gut won’t either. At least they have some bootstraps to pull themselves up by.