Commentary
A once popular TV sitcom, “All in the Family,” which ran from January 1971 to April 1979, has been in the news again. Its producer Norman Lear wrote an op ed piece for the New York Times (July 27, 2022) on the occasion of his hundredth birthday.
Lear speculated about what his best-known figure from the series, Archie Bunker, would have thought of Donald Trump. Since Lear has never disguised his left-of-center politics, the reader could have easily guessed that the commentator would tear into our former president. But what was more striking was his insistence that Archie would have done the same:
“For all his faults, Archie loved his country, and he loved his family, even when they called him out on his ignorance and bigotries. If Archie had been around 50 years later, he probably would have watched Fox News. He probably would have been a Trump voter. But I think that the sight of the American flag being used to attack Capitol Police would have sickened him. I hope that the resolve shown by Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and their commitment to exposing the truth, would have won his respect.”…