Interesting indeed. I wonder what exactly was the deal with this family. What a kick in the teeth it is that the father actually introduced FDR to his son!

I mean, telling people that they are in a toxic environment isn't encouraging them to leave? And telling them that their parents will just feed them lies if they try to talk to them is encouraging conversation? Sheesh.

Oh, snap, I just realized something. Stef says that parents yelling in front of their kids is a form of verbal abuse. But there is nothing involuntary or physically forceful about that. And yet he says that because he is not using physical force on people who come to his site, he isn't doing anything wrong.

Audio of the debate is up: http://www.fdrurl.com/phillydebate

Looks like video may be a DVD only thing until someone posts it online.

Does anyone have a link to the video?

There must have been some pretty significant problems on that recording for it to take almost an entire month to be released!

Wait, there's mainstream media that doesn't already think Ron Paul et al are nutters and that this Tea Party thing is a crock and would only publish quotes and clips that align with either humor or pathos?

Wow. Go media.

Rather, I would imagine that those within the RP group(s) will not have too much trouble extricating themselves from whatever they disagree with about Moly, while those outside these groups will just mock more vehemently for a week or so.

Those that aren't too bright will be quick to recognize where Moly disagrees with the party line (this replaces critical thinking effectively) and will likely turn the mockery they feel from the political majority onto him in kind, while those with a penchant for thinking shouldn't worry too much as they've arrived at their intellectual conclusions through careful and critical examination, right?

Thus, if Moly mounts an effective criticism of their arguments they really should be glad to have a chance to find a deeper truth as it strengthens them for later politicizing with the majority, while if he doesn't there isn't a reason to be threatened in the first place.

Or wait, are these Tea Free! politicos more prone to demagoguery than the average person? Oh, now I see a problem indeed.

I have more confidence in the Tea Party's people than the emailer I guess. Certainly they must be well used to having their beliefs quoted out of context or misrepresented entirely already. Ron Paul certainly has gotten good at handling this kind of thing.

Secondly, I would take it as a sign of a group's maturity and self-security that it would welcome contrasting opinions into free debate. Surely this has something to do with the invitation?

It would be vaguely interesting to know how this all played out. While I can see the point that as a charismatic rogue Moly seems a bit dangerous to invite to platform of propagandizing lies, I would hope and expect that most of these RP types have already committed themselves to steer away from such hypocrisy as policy. The only thing Moly would mess up is a bunch of bullshit, which is I suppose a compliment to the man.

On the other hand, if they're already to the point where they only want to hear from people who increase their image as pacifying conformist political morons, their concern is probably valid!