Platinum Politics in the Workplace

I came across this article on workplace discussion of politics. I found it interesting to the extent that it really says that it's a not a particularly good idea. Essentially, talking about politics, like any sensitive subject (see your mom jokes), has the potential to disrupt the true work of the office. Therefore, if talking about politics cannot be done in a civil way(see example below), there may need to be directives stating what kind of discourse will be allowed.


To me, this all makes sense. I have tremendous difficulty being civil when discussing politics, even with people I agree with (I hate the messenger, but not the message). The most interesting line of the article is when an expert said the following:
It's also important to provide a channel for people to voice concerns, Pratt said. "The trick is to let people approach things with maturity."

Doing some quick research, I turned up two articles(here and here). Reading to the end of the first will give you a special treat. Note that the second article seems to contradict the one at the top.

My question is this, is there any truly platinum way to talk about politics at work? Anyone seen one? From what I see in the articles, unless you work at a place that has politics as part of it's mission like the DNC or RNC, it seems practically impossible, mainly because most people simply don't know how to have a civil debate. Politics is personal(as it should be) and I'm not sure people(including myself) are mature enough to have a debate without a full-on moderator.