The bottom line (as I see it) boils down to two facts:

1. Vitriol isn't completely ingorable by any user. It demands user effort to scan through, discard, and generally avoid. Even the thickest skinned user has to make a cognitive effort to sort the useful from the emotional, attention-sucking tirades. Regardless of what one thinks of the merits of political discourse, permitting these high weeds means makes Optiboard less attractive for professionals to use for professional purposes.

2. Moderators have finite resources of time, attention, and morale. If forum discourse is offputting to a substantial plurality of users, it's that much more draining on moderators who can't ignore it. This makes their forum experience more negative, accellerating turnover, and the forum is worse off.

It would be wise to keep the board a fun experience to moderate rather than a toxic one. User satisfaction will follow suit well enough.

Having said that, I voted for option 3...if someone really wants to rant politics here, then why not take their money and let them do it in folders unseen by anyone but the willing?