Pro: 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.

Con: There should always be room for political discussion in our lives. But why on this site? There are other places people can go to talk politics.

Pro: Why not on this site? Discussion is always more productive when you are among friends - people you know are not trolls, and from whom you can expect a well-reasoned argument.

Con: But politics is the mind killer. If we allowed political discussion here, friends would become enemies, mild-mannered commenters would become trolls, and rationalists would become just so many Republicans and Democrats.

Pro: Really? If our veneer of rationalism is that fragile, perhaps this community is not as exceptional as we like to think. Why not give it a test? We can only learn something from this experience. Only we can learn something from this experience!

Con: No. It is just too risky.

Pro: Nothing ventured ...

Con: Ok. An experiment then. But it has to be safe. And limited. With ground rules and criteria for evaluating results agreed upon in advance.

Pro: Sounds good. ... Wait! You expect ME to propose the rules? Sorry, I'm no good at this. But maybe the readership has some suggestions.