re: "Do they ever stop and think about anyone besides themselves??"
Bingo! You've hit the nail on the head. The hallmark of a liberal is that when it's all said and done whatever they do is done to make them feel good about themselves. Their approach to life is to give a street person a few bucks to cleanse their guilt and them move on. They base their entire view of life on intentions, not results. Regardless of how disastrous the outcome, if it was done with good intentions then they feel they've done their part.
Found this link today looking for a psychological profile of leftists.
GUILT, BLAME, AND POLITICS
http://www.conservativebookstore.com/guilt.shtml
Sounds interesting.