Spot on about "under God". Using God to show we're better than the Commies. Pure political opportunism. Opposing it meant, in the 1950s, you were a commie sympathizer or an atheist, and we know what all too many people think of atheists.
I agree with you. I think that, as the United States is a secular democratic republic, those two words violate the spirit of the US Constitution. If I may, I also think those two words totally mock God because of why they were inserted, and they denigrate God in the name of "supporting" God. Sounds like a violation of the Third Commandment.