> One the one hand, they're trying to keep intelligent discourse from devolving into flamewars, and I very much agree with that. On the other hand, sometimes I want to hear what the crowd here, who I view as far more intelligent than the average internet forum crowd, thinks about these political issues.

Agree with you here. HN users can have some well thought-out and nuanced takes on political issues that span the political spectrum†, but the flamewars are often some of the worst I've seen as well. It's unfortunate because I can't think of anywhere on the internet that has better potential for reasoned political discourse. The only other place is Reddit, and the subreddits there are strictly echo chambers for your own preformed opinion.

† Funnily enough, I've seen flagged accusations that HN users are both too conservative and too liberal; too libertarian and too socialist.