> Still, a forum for political debate that's both open and inhabited mostly by the reasonable and well-informed... I don't know if it's possible, but I'd like to see it.
Paul Graham wrote a very well though out article on why debating politics, even with the best intentions, is extraordinarily difficult.
More generally, you can have a fruitful discussion about a topic only if it doesn't engage the identities of any of the participants. What makes politics and religion such minefields is that they engage so many people's identities.
Probably not: http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html