I consider sitting around and arguing politics to be one of the better cultural traits passed down from the Brits. It used to be common for this type of discourse to occur in pubs and other public and semi public venues, though over time there has been a cultural shift away from discussing matters of substance as a pastime and towards debating things that are truly and completely meaningless like sports.

I think its human nature to want to debate, argue and dicker over various things. Its cool that the internet has created a venue to do so with topics that are at least interesting and pertinent.

For who could be free when every other man's humour might domineer over him? - John Locke (2nd Treatise, sect 57)