Collins Report

By John F. Allen

Saturday’s primary showed us who the real Archie and Edith Bunkers are; rank and file white Democrats.

From 1971 to 1979 the most watched television show was All in the family. The show featured a bigoted WASP named Archie Bunker who lived with his family at 704 Hauser Street in Queens. Archie basically hated everything that wasn’t just to his liking in the America of his day. He was the quintessential “angry white man” and of course he was a Reagan Democrat waiting to happen. Although the portrait of Archie as a terrible person was supposed to revolt viewers, the truth was that many people saw themselves in him and were actually happy with what they saw.

While Archie’s registration is never divulged, simple deduction would make a very strong case that he was a Democrat. Consider these features of his make up: White male, living in New York City at a time when 70% of the town was registered Democrat, doing manual labor, afraid of economic competition from any minority, living a lower middle class existence. If Archie wasn’t a Democrat, nobody was.

Archie was in many ways a timeless character. He was the driving force behind the Jim Crow laws. He was the filibustering Southern Democratic Senator trying to stop the 1965 Civil Rights act. He voted in Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic primary.

Archie’s creator Norman Lear a liberal’s liberal, probably thought his character was showing the world what a Republican was. But those who watched the show, as I did, never saw him as anything but the average white Democrat who lived next door.

In South Carolina Archie showed himself again. He made it very clear that although he’d rather stay home, when presented with the choice, he would actually vote for “the colored guy” instead of a woman. The exit polls show just 18% of voters were white males.

Archie’s wife Edith wasn’t too enthused about the field either. She made up just 25% of the turn out. Look at how Archie and Edith voted. They just couldn’t support either the “colored guy” or “a woman.”

The Bunkers voted for John Edwards; 45% for Archie and 36% for Edith. If Edwards could these numbers from all groups in all primaries he would be a major player. Of course he may yet, as the process moves through the South where the Bunker Democrats live.

The Archie Bunker’s dissatisfaction with the results was evident. Fully 23% were not satisfied. That’s a very large number, but not a surprising one. Those of us who have watched the Democrats for decades have always known The Archie Bunkers were there, just subsurface. Now Archie and Edith are showing up on Hauser Streets all over the country. Let’s just sit back and watch the fun as the media squirm trying to get them “stifle” themselves.