Because his family was going through a medical crisis he understood why it was so stressful for people to be unable to afford prescriptions under such circumstances.As George Lakoff will tell you, empathy for others' circumstances is a liberal moral value, not a conservative one; in the conservative system, other values predominate.This is a big problem with Republicans. They reflexively object to any government program until they are confronted personally with a situation that requires such intervention. They have no empathy for people in the abstract, always assuming that whomever is saying they are in need is a whining malcontent who could be just as healthy and self-sufficient as they are if they truly tried.
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Until it happens to them or someone they know, in which case they never question their philosophy as a whole but merely apply a special exemption to whichever particular problem or risk to which they have personally been exposed.
16 February 2007
Moral imagination
Digby observes that much of the conservative politics that lefties find callous reflects a failure of imagination.
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Until it happens to them or someone they know, in which case they never question their philosophy as a whole but merely apply a special exemption to whichever particular problem or risk to which they have personally been exposed.
There's actually some interesting writing out there about anti-abortion protesters who find themselves saddled with an unwanted pregnancy and who get abortions. Generally, they insist that theirs is a special exception, their circumstances simply don't allow them to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term. Yet, they're often right back on the picket line outside the abortion clinic (often the very abortion clinic they used) within days. They must miss the gene that allows you to realize, "Oh, those other women feel the same way about their pregnancies." It's weird.
There's an old joke in pro-choice circles, that everyone agrees that there are three situations in which an abortion is morally acceptable without any ambiguity.
1. Rape
2. Incest
3. Me
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