From the President’s remarks today:

“We’re becoming a more perfect union, not a perfect union, a more perfect union,” said the president as he ended his statement.

This statement continues the President’s habit of quoting constitutionalist ideals in his speeches. As I discussed in Unprecedented, he channeled the Declaration in his second inaugural address:

President Obama delivered a similar message in his second inaugural address, evoking Jefferson. “That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Today we continue a never ending journey to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time. For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they’ve never been self-executing. That while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by his people here on earth.”

He also added this point:

“Being in a post-racial society doesn’t mean racism has been eliminated. But kids these days have more sense than we did.”

Update: Here is the transcript of his remarks.

And so, you know, we have to be vigilant and we have to work on these issues, and those of us in authority should be doing everything we can to encourage the better angels of our nature as opposed to using these episodes to heighten divisions. But we should also have confidence that kids these days I think have more sense than we did back then, and certainly more than our parents did or our grandparents did, and that along this long, difficult journey, you know, we’re becoming a more perfect union — not a perfect union, but a more perfect union.