Conservatives have to force themselves to pretend to like MLK because he’s a universal American hero and they cannot directly say they opposed his beliefs. But other conservatives may literally only grew up learning about his “I have a dream speech,” and only care about the whole “judging by one’s character” line and nothing more. I think he was also a republican, so they have no choice but to say they like him as well as Lincoln because they want to monopolize the “anti racism” discussion

He is quite literally their one black friend that they always bring up unprompted to excuse their racist behavior