it sure doesn't help when you live in a political culture where the label of "flip-flopper" is instantly applied to anyone who dares to change their mind.
One man's flip flopper is another man's pragmatist.
hard-core folks on either side of the political divide seem to despise pragmatists though, and everyone's playing to their base - there's a pragmatic solution to just about every issue confronting us at the moment (debt, immigration, energy, healthcare, etc), and not a one has a chance in hell of going anywhere it seems