Jacquelyn Martin / AP Photo
Tens of thousands of Tea Partiers—and counterprotesters—are descending on Washington, D.C. this weekend to rally on the National Mall on the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech—ironic, since they’ve often been accused of racism. But the Tea Party sees no irony. Feeling persecuted and ignored by Washington, its activists, mostly middle-class white men, have seized on the language of the civil-rights movement. Rally organizer and Fox News host Glenn Beck said on his radio show that King’s vision has been “corrupted” because character “doesn’t even matter in the country anymore.” "This is going to be a moment that you'll never be able to paint people as haters, racists, none of it," Beck said. "This is a moment, quite honestly, that I think we reclaim the civil-rights movement." The Tea Party opposes many social programs, calling them Marxist, and if they read King’s speeches more closely, they would find him calling for an “economic bill of rights,” job guarantees, and for the country to acknowledge its “debt to the poor.” Meanwhile, the Rev. Al Sharpton is leading a march from northwest Washington to the Mall in a bid to “reclaim the dream.” Several civil-rights activists will speak at the competing rally.