The Hijacking of the Pledge of Allegiance

This article in Slate by David Greenberg is an informative overview of how the Pledge of Allegiance was fundamentally changed in the 1950s from its secular nature to, in President Eisenhower's words, "the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty."  Against a backdrop of the communist menace, a movement materialized that swept aside the Founding Fathers' intent not to institutionalize religion in government.  By 1954, Congress fell over themselves to insert "under God" in the Pledge.  1955 saw the insertion of "In God We Trust" on all paper money, and the same four words replaced E Pluribus Unum as the national motto in 1956.  The current rush to theocracy among way too many on the political right had its seeds sown in the 1950s where "under God" was stuck into the Pledge to oppose what communism stood for -- not because communism was totalitarian, but because it was atheist.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history_lesson/2002/06/the_pledge_of_allegiance.single.html

Majority Ruled

I don't think I've seen a better, more thorough analysis of why the will of a majority of Americans does not get expressed into law than E. J. Dionne's column linked below.  About 9 out of 10 of us favor universal background checks for gun purchases, and nearly two-thirds of Americans think job creation should be Washington's top priority.  Yet neither seems to be a priority among lawmakers, and Dionne's analysis shows how this has come to be.  For instance, Dionne explains how senators that represent only 11 percent of the nation's population can stop any bill from even being considered in the U. S. Senate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-the-end-of-majority-rule/2013/04/07/74d8a6d6-9e30-11e2-9a79-eb5280c81c63_story.html