Virtually all topics where discussed in the O'Club years ago. The rules you see pinned in a post above were all the same, except 14 was added. There were even moderators.
Unfortunately, your comment that it "can be done" was proven years ago to not be true. We've been down that road and it's a road to nowhere that alienates and polarizes the community. This community exists because of our common interest in the game and to WWII aviation, to a lesser extent. It does not exist to discuss politics or religion.
Just in case you didn't know, there is (or at least was 30+ years ago) a rule in the Officer's Club and Mess aboard ship during deployment. The rule is that no one brings up politics or religion.
(Added: The above is only my opinion. I doubt HTC will go back to allowing political discussions again, but you never know, do ya?)