Pro: Posts like this get large numbers of upvotes, indicating that people want to see more of them.
Con: As SarahC points out below, however, when people start posting their opinions (which they will) things get ugly.
I'm somewhat on the fence, in that I (like many others) am insatiably curious about what would come out of such discussions, and believe that in the end either I or many other people will have a large number of incorrect beliefs rectified. On the other hand, I do not know if the community would recognizably survive such a discussion, so for now I'd say it's best to wait.
There is a tendency to downvote articles and commentaries with a political subtext with a remark on how politics is the mind-killer. I completely understand that nobody wants his mind to be killed, however, I disagree on the employed methods. I don't think anybody can really afford to ignore politics. It's a fact about any group of even a handful of people. Thus instead of shunning politics I think it's better to build one's rational defenses. Understanding that politics is a problem is only the first step. If you stop there, there will always be a big part of life where you are not rational. Therefore I suggest that, as long as it doesn't get out of hands, there should always be room for political discussions if not on the main site at least in the discussion section.