I don’t think we necessarily need a Mod intervention; I’d be happy if the OP would nclude the words at the outset. That’s a lot less than 30 seconds of work. 
I think it would be great if there was a “US Politics” forum as a sub/child forum of GD, especially during run-ups to the presidential elections. That wouldn’t be difficult for the admins to set up and it would certainly get lots of action.
I agree with Frylock that to anyone who watches the news in America, it was obvious that the “elitism” thread would be political. In the U.S. hearing one millionaire Senator accuse another millionaire senator of being “elitist” and “out of touch with the common man” is pretty much par for the course during an election year. In particular, Hillary Clinton had recently leveled such accusations at Barack Obama around the time that thread was posted.
I appreciate that this can be frustrating to non-Americans who don’t necessarily know what passes for politics around here. In some parts of the world you probably wouldn’t expect threads on “global warming” or “evolution” to be political, either. But in the U.S. these scientific subjects have become highly politicized.
I guess I kind of feel like at least in “Great Debates” there isn’t much chance of avoiding all exposure to U.S. politics. But usually I’d think the content of the thread would be clear from the mouseover text, wouldn’t it?
Indeed. Unfortunately, a large prportion of posters do not read ATMB or Stickies, so the only way to enforce it would be through Mod intervention. I support the principle, however.