I think a politics category would be a big mistake. I also agree about the latest trend of turning seemingly innocuous threads into political discussions, it should stop. My feeling is that local politics, that which covers local politicians, local taxes and such should be fair game as long as it doesn't show up in a thread about a new gas station. Speaking of which, it seems that the political content in that particular thread went on for a week or two without any commotion. As soon as an opposing viewpoint is posted the "oh why are we arguing crowd" comes out in force. I always find that interesting. It's like post whatever you want as long as I agree with it even though it bothers someone else, post something I don't like then we better stop posting political content.
As far as bashing goes, I really don't see it. It occasionally happens, but the webmaster is very quick to keep everyone in line and it disappears quickly. Healthy debate is good, I know I learn things from it and I learned a long time ago that shying away from it just makes things worse.
Anyway, a political category, I think, would be a nightmare. Preventing threadjacking of innocent threads with political rantings I think would be a good thing.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
