Republicans coopted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

While killing everything he believed. 

While Dr. King was alive, the FBI investigated, harassed and tried to kill him.   Conservatives called him communist, Marxist, "coon" back in the sixties.  Republicans fought him every step of the way and against everything he stood for when he was alive and when he was dead they've fought his memory.  Until the day came when enough of the people who vehemently opposed Dr. King and viscerally hatred him were gone and their children, ideological descendants, and shameless propagandists could hypocritically claim they always loved, honored, and cherished MLK Jr.

It was the smart move.  First, cynically honoring Dr. King provides cover for their agenda.  They say one thing and do the opposite.  Secondly, attempting to steal Dr. King legacy angers and annoys The Left broadly.  And conservatives sole policy is to #OwntheLibs.  Lastly, in order to defeat Dr. King conservatives realized physically killing him was not enough. They needed to murder his spirit, too.

Thus, having killed the Real Martin, Republicans set themselves up to take the mantle of Saint Martin and claim his every speech amounted to the one quote they take out of context to justify the rightwing agenda of oppression, intolerance and adulation of the Rich.

Today,  Dr. King would no doubt be arrested in Virginia for teaching the dreaded Critical Race Theory.  South Dakota would damn Dr. King as the Real Racist.  And Republicans would without irony damn Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and self-righteously declare they were judging him on the content of his character.  A Character they assassinated in life and in death.

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