I agree empathy is important, however it's not at the center of that particular distinction I was trying to make. It works fine to distinguish say, the Libertarian school from the Leftist school... but when trying to distinguish Leftists from the Religious Right you need something else.

As I understand them, fundamentalists don't lack empathy, they just apply it in a very narrow, misinformed way. For example, they might empathize strongly with an unborn fetus but only very weakly with a prisoner on death row. And strongly with their own friends and family, but only weakly with strangers.