This is one of the reasons I don't think I would make a good politician. One good video of my complete verbal paralyzation and my political career would be over. Worse, my inability to compose a proper defense might actually make people believe whatever crap my antagonist is trying to sell.
Worse still, being tongue-tied further increases my anger, leading to only greater frustration when trying to get my point across. I find myself often cycling into higher and higher gears of frustration to the point that I just want to injure the person who is challenging my beliefs.
Due to my background in education, I have a general idea as to why this happens. Our minds drop into what's often affectionately referred to as "lizard brain," cutting off our ability to use the higher functions of our cerebral cortex. When threatened enough, we can actually become completely incapable of speech and overly aggressive.
I hate that lizard brain sometimes takes over. I like being the person with answers, not the person with anger management issues. Perhaps if I could just let myself be content with letting people hold their incorrect beliefs. It's okay for people to be wrong.
People, not me.