The idea is both attractive and baffling. Do you hope people might talk politics dispassionately? Perhaps if it had 1:1 ratio of mods to users ... and we could throw religion into the mix too, why not.
Every time a political topic crosses the front page of HN, it receives a plethora of attention and the debate is constructive and informative. These threads are some of my favorite, but I can understand why other HN users have no interest and perceive it as off topic. I’d just like a community that was as informed and thought provoking as HN but focused a bit more on world affairs and a bit less on tech. Reddit, because of its obsession with jokes and memes, will never get there; even in the most serious subreddits