Creating an unmoderated forum is only going to further divide the membership. Certainly the idea of a forum with free speech is a great thing conceptually. A vigorous public discourse is an essential part of a free society. But as for websites that are devoted to Star Wars collecting? It's probably not a good idea.
The track record is already there. Just check out the RS and GH forums. It got UGLY. And it definitely spilled out beyond the political threads in those forums. And to think that people would be able to compartmentalize those socio-political discussions from others is just naive. People's belief systems are so strongly engrained that attempting to seperate them from everyday discussion is extremely difficult. Certainly one would like to think that an adult can rationally divide their political views from interpersonal relationships, but that just isn't the case. Plus, you have to account for the fact that not everyone is a good enough writer in a forum environment to convey when they're being serious, snarky or just ridiculous. That in and of itself is a huge cause for many a misunderstanding. And most likely you're also going to draw users who are here solely for that unmoderated forum and don't add anything else to the site.
The integrity of the site would definitely be placed in jeopardy by this kind of scenario. I think you would slowly see a breakdown in general civility across the site, followed by flareups here and there in unrelated forums. And I don't think it's fair to those moderators who are supposed to be shepherding Star Wars discussions to have to squash disputes that are going to be started in the unmoderated forum.
And you know what else? There are plenty of websites all over the internet where socio/political/religious discussions are thriving. They're just a few clicks away, and that's what those websites are dedicated to. I don't think that a social experiment is the right reason for tearing apart one of the more cohesive and cool Star Wars collecting forums on the web.