(Flip-)Flop Goes the Weasel

I often wonder how exactly people make up their minds on political or social questions and whether their conclusions are really subject to change. Is there actually room for genuine debate in the political sphere or is the dog and pony show of scripted rejoinders cleverly designed to zoom right past the opponent in the room and into the ears of the base or other politically amendable listeners all we can hope for?

In general, I would say that political "debate" doesn't change minds because people often tend to be very discerning when it comes to facts. By that I mean they pick and choose which ones they incorporate into their world view. Inconvenient truths are ignored or perverted so that one need not change too much, if at all. At least not all at once.

Well, last May Gallup announced: More Americans “Pro-Life” Than “Pro-Choice” for First Time:



That's a 15-point swing in one year. Presumably the abortion question taps into fairly deep-core beliefs about human life, privacy, and individual, social, and governmental responsibility. Not the sort of thing you expect to see flip overnight. Perhaps I'm blanking out here but I can't think of some large event that could've impacted opinions so drastically. Was a mass abortion held on the steps of the Capitol and I missed it?

Assuming there isn't some methodological problem going on in Gallup's polling, that's damned peculiar.