Arguing Politics: A no win situation

A few nights ago I found myself discussing taxation with two other people: An Indian and a person who is a dual citizen of France and Switzerland. I noticed something that was very odd during the discussion. Quite often people will agree with your points, the majority of your points regarding small government. Then they reject the whole idea reverting back to counter points that they have already discarded. To me this seems like some kind of odd rubber band effect, almost as if people had been brainwashed. 

For the rest of the week I have been wondering about this. Why is it that someone, when listening, can accept a point of logic but then they can't put the points together in a logical format in their own minds? Is it because they actually need time to think and digest? Or is it that conditioning is much stronger than I had once believed?