An election day poem on patriotic politicians

The email from a student, "Z" was this:

I was reminded of your blog posts about military spending by this op-ed - maybe you have already read it?

I wonder when we will get any president with enough cojones to lay it out to the American public the ugly truth about our military spending and the militarization of culture.

I can safely assume it will never happen; after all, they have all managed to convince many of us that not only do we need a stronger military than the one we have, we ought to also monitor and preempt any home-grown terrorism for which we will soon employ drones flying over our heads in order to keep track of our activities.

Ultimately, it is not patriotic to question the insanity that is our obsession with the military and homeland_security. USA! USA! USA!

Years ago, e.e.cummings wrote about this awful nexus between politicians and patriotism

"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country 'tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"

He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water

click here to listen to cummings reading this poem

But then, what does a peace-loving Libertarian-Democrat know, right?  This evaluation from isidewith.com is an example, though not accurate, of the mix of political preferences: