While GOP crazies lay siege to town halls across America, some in Washington are starting to wave the white flag on health care reform. We can’t let that happen. We need medicine, not mobs; doctors, not death threats. That’s why we produced our latest video.

If you see something, say something.

Use the twitter hashtag #GOPcrazy to aggregate images, stories and video of outlandish right-wing antics. We’ll be monitoring the feed, and in our next video using the content you flag to push back on the crazies.

The mob scare tactic isn’t new.

Generations of right-wingers and know-nothings have used it to foil reform. In 2000, an ‘angry mob of ordinary Floridians’ forced a stop to the Miami-Dade recount and helped win George Bush his 1st 4 years of disastrous presidency.

In 2004, the ‘Swiftboat Veterans for Truth’ led the right-wing vitriol towards John Kerry, winning Bush yet another 4 years of mayhem.

Now, the mob is back, and after bringing us 8 years of George W. Bush, they’re trying to hijack Barack Obama’s presidency too. But this time, the good guys know what’s up, and we’re doing something about it.

For too long the right has used the mob to distract, delay and deter progressives from tackling the most important issues we face as a nation.  What we’re seeing now on health care is no exception – in fact, it’s the rule.

If you see spectacular right-wing mob activity, twitter it with the hashtag #GOPcrazy.

This time, let’s help the crazies dig their own grave.

The Town Hall takeovers and Teaparty nonsense transformed the campaign for health care reform into a debate about a debate, rather than a discussion about how to care for sick folks.  Joan Walsh draws out the contrast pretty well: the debate at town halls has become more media friendly than the actual people who need health care.

For years, the Republicans kept a stranglehold on the national debate by effectively mobilizing values-laden language to frame how issues like health care were discussed.  Pro-public option folks had the opportunity to do the same thing by using the dramatic stories of Americans denied health care by for-profit insurers to force free marketeers to account for the damage wrought by a mainly private health care system.

Instead, the discussion got (intentionally) bogged down in a back and forth about ‘moving too fast’, ‘astro-turf’ and the disingenuousness of right wing claims about death-panels and the like.

The lesson?  Keep you eye on the ball, and you’ve more likely to hit a home-run.  Get distracted, and you’ll strike out.