Good point, @DiogenesLamp
You appear to be the first person who seems to have grasped the point, and I thought it was a particularly good one too! :)
I guess I did the same thing back in the 2nd Clinton term.
Took a special affection for the illegal immigrant. Interacted in business, and they became friends, and I've watched their kids grow up and get married themselves.
Of course, my attitudes changed with the advent of Obama.
Years ago I read a comment to the effect that "Most of us care more that our dog is sick than that a thousand people on the other side of the world have been killed in an avalanche. "
"Tribe" and "empathy" are both relative and proximate. We people follow our nature more than we adhere to abstract theories, even if the theories are consistent and sensible.
People who are near you and with whom you are friends are your "Tribe." An older way of putting it is "Kith and Kin."