Reich's analysis seems incorrect to me. The application of more sophisticated technology should enable one to do more with less. If the aim were to get voters excited about the election and the candidates, advanced marketing techniques could be expected to use fairly modest resources to create passionate responses, leading to an unstable electorate and the likelihood of landslides and upsets. But this is not what we observe in the present case. I conclude that either advanced marketing techniques are not being used or, if they are in use, the intent is to make the election close and dull rather than exciting or lopsided. Since the present conformation of powers suits imperial Capital very well, the latter is my guess; the deadness Reich whines about is the deadness of victory. The last thing a liberal can desire in these days, when the silk purse and the pig's ear have become one and the same, is the reapparance of political struggle.