I think it is one of the undocumented features of HN that polarizing posts tend to be downvoted even though they are technologically interesting. I’m one of the people here on HN that actually enjoy political discussions on HN, particularly those that intersect with technology (like the case is with this post). Apparently there are enough of us here that occasionally a post like this is deemed interesting enough that the community votes to keep it on the front page for a little while.

There are views to be shared (as with pure technical posts) and I can learn where the community stands on these issues.