Thanks for keeping it local Rob

[Durian Fiend]

It's another good reason to not go there, besides it being against policy. And to show he's wrong, it's necessary to indicate who else's opinion, other than your own, that you find important.

I'm afraid he's right, in the context of national politics. Many of us can't always suppress the urge to share our viewpoint (myself included), which seems so terribly important to ourselves but actually mean little to nothing for most others in a forum such as this.
All these arguments manage to do is create bad blood between participants, so its a wise policy (IMO) to disallow them.