Hypocrisy

Here's something that's bugging me: conservatives who are liberal on the one issue that hits them close to home. Yglesias calls this the "politics of narcissism," Mark Schmitt called it "Miss America conservatism," and I call it hypocrisy. You're conservative, but you think the government should support special needs education, and you just happen to have a child with special needs? You're conservative, but you support marriage equality, and you just happen to have a gay son? Well, Palin, Portman, and outdoorsy/environmental friends who joke about their taxes being given to people who don't work as hard as they do, it's really too bad that you can't empathize with any situations that don't happen to affect your very own family. I was like that too, until I hiked the Appalachian Trail (living on government land for free for four months) and realized I'd be a horrible person if I was in favor of government programs like the AT that, let's face it, mostly benefit middle or upper class white people, but was opposed to government programs for people who didn't have basically everything handed to them on a safe suburban platter.

How did I, probably one of the least empathetic persons you'll ever meet, realize this, but so many others haven't?