It happens from time to time that a single issue will become of suddenly more important than anyone expected. What I’m thinking would be a cool event to pop up sometimes would be that either a policy or a situation or a simulations would suddenly start affecting people’s opinions with greater strength than usual. Suddenly people who were only moderately upset about something suddenly start demanding that it be changed/fixed right now. The positive flip side would be that somebody in the opposition challenges something you are doing that supporters like you for, and they go from being swing voters to solid supporters.
I think this is in many respects what events and dilemmas represent within the game. They depend on the current situation and are often things that opponents are challenging you on or which have become high profile for some reason and they shift opinions quite strongly for a short period when they are relevant.
-El