Like Donald Trump, All in the Family’s Archie Bunker another Queens N.Y. native, bemoaned a fading America.
Those Were the Days
Today on Morning Joe, Rob Reiner kept it 100. When asked why some people support Trump the legendary director and activist said it’s because they are racists.
Now Reiner is no meathead – he knows a racist when he sees it. After all he played the beleaguered son-in-law of one.
No one represented the silent majority of fading white male patriarchy than that other sexist, racist, xenophobic from Queens, N.Y.
All in The Family’s Archie Bunker, that 1970’s flag waving, John Wayne-loving, loveable blue collar bigot became a powerful spokesman for those President Richard Nixon had termed the Silent Majority.
Resentful, Archie was fed up with intellectuals, women libbers, bleeding heart liberals, out-sourced jobs, and other elites intent on messing up a way of life that was working pretty well.
Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker
This blue color worker from Queens grappled with the big issues of the day- affirmative action, gay pride, women’s rights, the sexual revolution and his railing at elites has become the leitmotif of American politics ever since.
“I’m white, I’m male, I’m protestant,” Archie Bunker once declared. “Where’s there a law to protect me?”
Girls Were Girls and Men Were Men
Suddenly white male entitlement was being challenged, beginning its slow decline.
Like Trump supporters, Archie missed it and wanted it back. Just as Archie Bunker pined for the good ol’ days, Trump has fetishized the Good Old Days not just in rhetoric or sentiment but in policy that aims to take us back to them.
© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Envisioning The American Dream 
It is just astonishing how many of them are out there…still.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Sadly, they never went away
LikeLiked by 2 people
Archie is finally getting his revenge… (pun intended)
LikeLiked by 1 person
It would be unjust to assume that all Trump supporters are motivated by racism; but there is evidence that they are among our least educated citizens. One example (Sept 2015) is a set of poll results at http://politicsthatwork.com/blog/trump-supporters.php
Sadly, many voters want simple solutions to complex problems, and they resent being challenged to wrestle with facts and contradictory needs. (E.g., Will we create more jobs by repairing bridges and highways, or by reducing taxes? Should we get energy from nuclear power, or from solar & wind, or from fossil fuels? None of those solutions is perfect — but we need to make some decisions, soon.) It’s complexity, and a feeling that “I don’t understand; let someone else decide,” that makes a potential dictator appear attractive to confused and frustrated people like Archie Bunker.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The disenfranchised, angry middle Americans of the 1970’s, the so called silent majority bear a strong resemblance to Trumps frustrated, fear based followers. Their familiar “America Way” had shattered into a bewildering array of lifestyles and felt their white patriarchal ways were under attack.
LikeLiked by 2 people
There’s a lot of Trump and Tea Party supporters who will jump all over you if you call them racists. They’ll tell you about the black friends they have. They even work with a black person. So how can they be racists. Quite simply. If you support a racist, you are a racist. And if you support a racist agenda, you are a racist. Way to many people are in denial about this. Well, they need to wake up and smell the coffee. But not at my house please.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Well said!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I liken it to “guilty by association,” or more precisely when a person uses ultimatums or lines in the sand that look and sound like ultimatums, things are very black-n-white (no pun intended) and there’s little room for negotiation and collaboration. (t)Rump is without a doubt a hyper-testosteroned Authoritarian with insensitive care-less regard to opponents. In a word, polarizing. And he likes it that way because he likely gets a hard-on from it. I gest there, sort of. 😉
If I may use a personal example to further clarify…
I have a dear friend of 16-years. I would consider him like a brother. It must be noted here that I have a long professional & personal background in Psych/A&D therapy. With that I’ve developed an empathetic caring for those suffering from these disorders and addictions. Sadly, my friend gradually got caught up in drug use and drug-dealing. Eventually he was terminated from every teaching position he held for a month or two for about 4-5 years. The drug environment he was around daily since a boy — his large African-American family lived in and grew up in South Dallas. In about that 4th year of losing his jobs again, I began to suspect, but he cared so much about our long close friendship he would intentionally hide this drug-side of his life — he could no longer get hired teaching so he was further forced into more drug-dealing just to survive. About 18-months ago he said he needed to drive to a “cousins house” in South Oak Cliff and I was already riding with him. I was suspicious, but we trusted each other with our own children. I agreed. When we arrived at the house I could see by while waiting for him in the car all the traffic coming and going this was crack-house.
I am a public Special Ed school teacher! What would happen to me and my career — let alone my visitation rights with my own children — if I continued riding with him to this house or any other house in the area? What would happen if we are pulled over and he/we are riding dirty?
That potential risk, to all levels and degrees, is “Guilty by associating” and simply given my occupation and personal situation with my kids… at the very least, whether I plead & BEG for leniency and innocence or not, I am in a world of unnecessary repercussions.
Now, if you continually hangout with (t)Rump and he is clearly a Sexist, an Antagonist, and seemingly a Racists… what does that make his loyal supporters!? Exactly.
LikeLiked by 2 people