Barack Obama: “All persons deserve to live lives free from violence and discrimination.”

Your task is not to impose litmus tests.

In forming our union, the founders fell terribly short of the Declaration's promise, leaving slavery intact, allowing states to restrict the franchise to white men who owned property.

They're meant to remind us of who we can be, to remind us of what's possible, so we can forge ahead.

This idea that any suggestion or criticism that America was anything other than perfect is unpatriotic... is a suggestion that you hate your country.