“So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”

With these words, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. bridged grim reality with soaring possibility. In his immortal 1963 speech on the National Mall, King did not ignore America’s failures — he named them. He spoke of police brutality, segregated schools and economic injustice. He also gave us a vision — a dream rooted not in fantasy, but in the promise of America’s founding creed. His dream was for all of us: Black and white, Jew and Gentile, Protestant and Catholic. It was a dream of a nation that could still live up to its highest ideals.

Great leaders do more than govern; they inspire. John F. Kennedy summoned us to the moon. Lyndon Johnson gave us a Great Society. Richard Nixon believed in the potency of diplomacy. Ronald Reagan envisioned a shining city on a hill. George H.W. Bush spoke of a thousand points of light. Barack Obama gave us hope. Joe Biden helped us heal. Each of these dreams sought to unite and uplift. They were imperfect, but aspirational.

Today, we are not living a dream. We are living a nightmare. It began on Inauguration Day 2017 with a vision of “American carnage,” and it has metastasized into a politics of grievance, cruelty and deception. The Trump administration offered not renewal but retribution, replacing the dream of a more perfect union with a campaign to divide and dehumanize. Every day we awaken to new evidence of cruelty inflicted not by fate, but by intention.

President Trump has referred to Mexicans as “rapists” and Muslims as “radical Islamic terrorists.” He used the antisemitic trope “Shylocks” to refer to predatory money lenders. He called Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “shithole countries.” He called women “fat pigs” and “dogs” and Joe Biden “a son of a bitch.” He described Barack Obama as “the most ignorant president in our history” and journalists as “enemies of the people.” He described political opponents not in terms of policy differences but personal contempt. “I hate them,” he said of Democrats. “I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country.” When children were separated from their parents at the border, his administration made no plan to reunite them. Some remain apart to this day.

This worldview, tribal, vindictive and devoid of compassion, now dominates our politics. Wildfires in California were blamed on Democrats. Puerto Rico’s slow recovery from Hurricane Maria was explained by the territory’s lack of self-reliance. Critics of the preparation and handling of the deadly flood that struck Texas are derided as “disgusting.” A mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado, was attributed to a lax immigration policy even though the killer is a naturalized citizen.

Accountability, checks and balances, the guaranteed peaceful transfer of power and truth-telling have vanished. They have been replaced with demagoguery and deceit. During his first term in office, Trump averaged 21 false or misleading claims per day, according to The Washington Post. Not only does he remain unashamed and unbowed, he basks in self-adulation famously declaring: “I’m going to get a Nobel Peace Prize for a lot of things, if they gave it out fairly — which they don’t.”

This is not the language and actions of a democratic leader. It is the rhetoric of an authoritarian. And, it has consequences. A growing number of Americans lack adequate housing, health care and education. Faith in institutions is crumbling. Civic norms are eroding. The dream has faded.

Here in Maine, we are not immune. We see national polarization seep into our town halls, our school board meetings, even our family gatherings with friends. The opioid epidemic devastates our communities while health care access remains fragile. Science is ignored while climate change threatens our fisheries and forests. Immigrants who are vital to the economy in cities and towns across the state are met with suspicion and rounded up by ICE. And while Mainers pride ourselves on independence and decency, disinformation and division are eroding the very fabric of our civic life.

Dr. King did not speak of dreams to watch them fade. He spoke of them so we could fulfill them through action. He also spoke of the arc of the moral universe bending toward justice … but only if we, the people, bend it. Speaking up loudly, voting, organizing, holding politicians’ feet to the fire, defending truth and resisting cynicism are how we erase the nightmare and reclaim the dream.

Let’s get back to the mountaintop — not in memory, but in a movement to create a country that finally makes good on its promise. A country that will see, according to Dr. King, quoting the prophet Amos, “…justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

It is on us to form this more perfect union.