Got Empathy?

The South Bend Tribune reports this morning, "Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio has become one of the most prominent elected Republicans to announce his support for same-sex marriage, a 'change of heart' that he said began when his son told him that he was gay."  I read this news with mixed feelings--good for the cause--but why wait until it benefits his family?

Matthew Yglesias says in Slate, "...if Portman can turn around on one issue once he realizes how it touches his family personally, shouldn't he take some time to think about how he might feel about other issues that don't happen to touch him personally?"

Senators tend to be fortunately limited in what they experience personally.  Yglesias concludes his article with this:

The great challenge for a Senator isn't to go to Washington and represent the problems of his own family. It's to try to obtain the intellectual and moral perspective necessary to represent the problems of the people who don't have direct access to the corridors of power.  Senators basically never have poor kids. That's something members of congress should think about. Especially members of congress who know personally that realizing an issue affects their own children changes their thinking.

I like to think I can do this, but as I write this, I sense that I too could and should improve.