By Gilad Atzmon

Archie Bunker is one of America’s most beloved TV Characters. Archie was the fictional star of the 1970s television sitcom All in the Family. The iconic satire told the story of a typical American, white, patriarchal, working-class family living in Queens. Archie, the ‘patriarch’, was a middle-aged WWII veteran, a narrow-minded, conservative, blue-collar worker. A good Christian. A cherished member within Clinton's basket of deplorables. Archie was a simple man who spoke his mind - an early prototype of president-elect Donald Trump.

All in the Family’s routine was an ongoing quarrel between Archie the ‘beloved bigot’ and his liberal son-in-law, college student Mike to whom Archie refers to as a "dumb Polack” and “meathead” for being "dead from the neck up".

The one question Americans want to ask themselves is how did it happen that, despite Archie being one of the most beloved characters on American TV, America has become a nation of meatheads, suppressed by the tyranny of correctness and identitarian sensitivities.

Archie and ‘Meathead’ agreed on nothing. Yet, the nature of their dispute and the way in which it was delivered may provide us a window into the liberal cultural strategies that have been implemented in America and the West since the 1960’s.

All in the Family succeeded in pushing the liberal agenda into every American living room. It caught America’s thought police off guard. The tactics were simple, however incredibly forceful. On a weekly basis it displayed tension between Archie's ‘irrational’ bigotry and his level-headed, liberal son-in-law. Week after week our most ‘beloved bigot’ was reduced into a ‘reactionary caricature’. Mike, the ‘meathead’ was the voice of liberal transition. Mike was slightly pathetic, an anti-hero protagonist. Yet, for different reasons, we accepted that he had a vision, he was leading the way ‘forward’ towards a new form of middle class decency. They say that in America, working class folk like to move on up the ladder and Meathead provided them with a possible path.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST5EDqVntv0