‘His dream’s been weaponized into his nightmare’: how Martin Luther King Jr’s words have been co-opted

Politicians and celebrities routinely twist the message of the civil rights icon, turning a radical legacy into revisionist history

Sixty years on, Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech remains a rhetorical paragon, pushing the civil rights movement into the law books while transforming the rabble-rousing preacher into a global icon for freedom and equality. The speech did such a good job of capturing lofty American ideals that King's name is regularly taken in vain.

Vivek Ramaswamy harks back to King while making the case for dismantling critical race theory and DEI initiatives. (What bothers the heck out of me is right when we're close to that promised land ... [we] then obsess about systemic racism and white guilt," he told NBC earlier this month.) Ron DeSantis claims King would have been for book bans. (He said he didn't want people judged on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character," the Florida governor said while stumping for his Stop Woke Act in 2021, stressing a responsibility to protect our people and our kids from some very pernicious ideologies".) Nikki Haley, slow to concede the civil war's origins in slavery, says she was inspired by the civil rights icon.