An above-the-fold debate that must be fought below the belt

There are times when I want to quit being a progressive liberal, tear up my ACLU membership card and surrender my implanted mind-control chip through which I receive marching orders from Hugo Chavez. No matter the righteousness of the cause, liberal progressives cannot seem to get on top of any public policy debate, cannot seem to win any war of words -- which is just weird because you have to assume there are many more English majors among liberals.

While opinions on healthcare reform break sharply along partisan lines, with most Democrats in favor and most Republicans opposed, independent voters strongly oppose the healthcare reform measures pending in Congress by a whopping 70% to 27%, according to a recent Pew Research poll. How could the left possibly be losing the debate on healthcare reform when its opponent is the roundly loathed health insurance industry -- an ongoing criminal syndicate, in my view, that demands protection money from sick people?

It's because the insurance industry's demagoguery is better and smarter than the reformists' demagoguery.

This is a gunfight to which the reform agenda has brought a dull spoon. The reform message is so jellied with politesse, so measured, so anti-inflammatory it might as well be made out of Advil.

Case in point: ads featuring Harry and Louise, the first couple of issue advertising. The characters -- played by actors Harry Johnson and Louise Caire Clark -- first appeared in ads sponsored by the healthcare industry in 1993. The couple's scripted fear-mongering -- "they choose, we lose," etc. -- had a devastating effect on healthcare reform plans backed by the Clinton White House.

Suddenly the issue was framed: Witch-in-heels Hillary Clinton was coming to take away your dialysis machine. In the spirit of sportsmanship, advocates of healthcare reform would have to say, touche, well played.

Fast forward to 2009, and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America -- a.k.a. Big Pharma -- along with the little-known advocacy group Families USA, have recruited Harry and Louise to advocate for healthcare reform. The narrative logic seems to be that, 16 years after Hillarycare, the couple -- grayer and wiser -- have seen the error of their ways and that the reversal lends their new position a more solemn credibility. Big government healthcare is not the boogie man . . . more like a golem.