The Bunkerfication Of The Republican Party

screencap of Archie Bunker
The GOP has turned into a 70’s sitcom

I remember watching the CBS show “All in the Family” when I was a kid. It ran from 1971 to 1979. One of the main characters, Archie Bunker, was a white middle class bigot and the show highlighted his bigotry for comedy. Bunker usually was shown to be wrong and he would seem to change his ways at least until the next episode. I was reminded of him when thinking about the current members of the Republican party and one of my conservative friends who likes to call me names even though he is wrong all the time. They don’t see the farce they’ve become by irrationally holding on to ideas that are no longer valid.

Here is how Archie Bunker is described in the Wikipedia entry for the show “All in the Family“:

The comedy revolves around Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor), a working-class World War II veteran. He is an outspoken bigot, seemingly prejudiced against everyone who is not a U.S.-born, politically conservative, heterosexual White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male, and dismissive of anyone not in agreement with his view of the world. His ignorance and stubbornness tend to cause his malapropism-filled arguments to self-destruct. He often responds to uncomfortable truths by blowing a raspberry. He longs for simpler times when people sharing his viewpoint were in charge, as evidenced by the nostalgic theme song “Those Were the Days,” the show’s original title. 

All in the Family

That pretty much describes the white Republicans we see in the cheap labor conservative echo chamber all the time, like Rep. Steve King (R-IA):

JANET MEFFERD: How in the world do you out-left the left anyway? If we go to the left on amnesty, do you think the Democrats are going to sit still and just go ‘oh I guess that they’re more caring than we are’? It’s a zero-sum game. I don’t know how in the world the Republicans expect to get votes when the Democrats are already farther along than we are.

STEVE KING: There’s no possible way. Whatever we might say we are going to do, reduce the enforcement of the rule of law, waive the rule of law, Democrats will find a way to hand deliver citizenship papers along with a great big check from money borrowed from the Chinese.

Steve King: Democrats Will Win Over Hispanics By Giving Them ‘A Great Big Check’

What adds to this Bunkerfication of the current GOP is a cheap labor conservative friend of mine, who is still passing off debunked talking points, said I was an idiot – much like Archie Bunker called his son in law a ‘Meathead’ instead of admitting he was wrong. I guess it’s easier to call someone names rather than admitting one is wrong. But to me it reeks of desperation

These Archie Bunkers refuse to let the facts and evidence change their cherished beliefs – like having ten plus years of the Bush tax cuts yet they can’t tell us where all the jobs it was suppose to magically create are.

The ironic thing is that Archie Bunker is a fictional character that some Republicans look up to and pass on his messed up view of the 1970’s as if it was something to copy for today.

I call Archie Bunker the Stephen Colbert of the 70’s. The GOP don’t get it and never will.