It is not, but it's also hard to notice as a tourist. I've learnt that from here

I only really saw that in grade school. And it was a Red Scare thing. Super culty, but so is all the McCarthy stuff.

Do you ?

At a point I was travelling a lot to the US, the only time I heard the national anthem was before a Rodeo in Texas, and I never saw someone reciting the "pledge of allegience

Yeees, totally normal and culty at all...

Living in Florida I feel it's more common to see publicly. Recently join a "Walk for Heart Health" type event and it started with the national anthem and pledge. Local army ROTC high schoolers also came by a did... some form of rifle performance. This all was to "kick off" the event and most people had hands on their heart type stuff the whole time. Not to mention the city has "Land of the Free" flags on all the light polls in that plaza and it was interesting just HOW MANY people in florida wear those 1776 shirts or the "F around and find out" shirts still.