Intellectuals for Bunker

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Archie Bunker is the fictitious character played by Carol O’Connor in the 1970s sitcom All in the Family.  Bunker was a WWII veteran, staunch conservative, blue collar worker and sole provider for a family consisting of his wife, Edith, daughter Gloria and her husband, Mike, a full time sociology student and intellectual liberal.  Bunker famously had his own version of blue collar intellectualism, and was prone to philosophizing about the state of the country, and social and religious issues.  Archie’s living room chair, where he is most often depicted in the series, is on permanent collection at the National Museum of American History.  Archie Bunker was best known in the early episodes for his bigotry against nearly every minority and the gruff manner in which he expressed his opinions, especially around his educated son-in-law, who often looked down on Archie’s blue-collar intellectualism.  Later episodes depicted a softening of some of Bunker’s views.

Such was the popularity of the show that both sides of the 1972 presidential election distributed various Archie Bunker campaign buttons and politicians referred to the “Archie Bunker Vote” and discussed how to capture the vote of blue-color conservative Americans.