Over my Christmas break, I started watching the early seasons of All in the Family, with the iconic main character Archie Bunk, who in the 1970s, represented the Everyman of racists and bigots. Archie Bunker was MAGA before MAGA was MAGA, and watching these sitcom episodes truly evinces the amount of growth and progress America has made during the intervening 50 years since the creation of Mr. Bunker. That progress, of course, is essentially zero. Seriously, listening to the character that the show writers created — as both a person to be mocked yet be completely representative of the times — echos what we hear today. One could easily update the stage set to something current and modify the dialog with today’s references while keeping the intent of the message the same, and the sitcom would be a perfect reflection of the 2000s. Everything Archie does and says about minorities, liberals, “my” president, the government, civil rights, taxes, and so forth back then is exactly the same sentiments that I hear from MAGA morons and RepubliKKKlans today. In 50 years, the sitcom has not skipped a beat.
Still, the show was not number one in the Nielsen ratings from 1971 to 1976 for no reason; the show is funny. In fact, there is one catchphrase that I think should come back into vogue: Dingbat! While Archie all too often refers to his wife as a dingbat, I think it can be easily repurposed to greater effect and for a more deserving target: Traitor trump. I think Dingbat Donald is perfect and says it all. It rolls right off the tongue. Now, if only I had the social media clout to make it trend.