I guess the distinction I'm drawing is that the comments aren't interestingly political. The political topics that are left on the HN front page are usually the

I guess the distinction I'm drawing is that the comments aren't interestingly political. The political topics that are left on the HN front page are usually there because the discussion is heavily moderated to keep things civil and interesting, and that doesn't seem to be happening here. The top comment by tsimionescu is fine. Not great, but par for the course. The replies are at least mostly civil, but they're also mostly drive-bys. The other top-ranked top-level comments range from uninspired to terrible. There's this one (which suggests that OP and I aren't the only ones feeling this way), then the usual "the right is ascendant" comment, then an insanely flamebaity comment (235 replies and counting) that begins with "clearly the author is ignorant" and somehow manages to go downhill from there. Then there's a tired/wired meme and two single-sentence calls pointing to alternative alliance/free-trade arrangements with no further explanation.