The older I get, the more it becomes apparent that the primary political distinction between people is how many degrees of separation from themselves they care about people. The more you care about people barely connected to you at all, the more progressive you are. The more your scope of concern for people is limited to people in your immediately sphere, the more conservative you are.

It is not always selfishness that sways conservatives. They can care genuinely and deeply for their family, friends, colleagues, and community. But that is typically as far as that scope of concern goes. They can take on more progressive political positions or make limited exceptions when their lifelong regressive politics suddenly negatively affects themselves or those close to them. Their kid comes out as trans, their work friend is black, their community is being spoiled by a corporation, and suddenly they are a progressive ally on those things alone. But what they care about will still be limited to those in their bubble. They will not care that their politics has the same effect on someone else's family until it happens to their's. It's a genuine character flaw. They are incapable of general altruism.