Through bigoted Archie Bunker, the popular television show All in the Family injected challenging topics like race and abortion into the conversations of American families 50 years ago. In one of the best known episodes, cab driving Archie has Sammy Davis, Jr. as a passenger, resulting in comedic chaos. (Getty Images)

I was a kid when All in the Family began airing on television in 1971, and my family watched it together every week. We’d rush home from the Saturday evening mass at our church for CBS’ incredible lineup that included M*A*S*H, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart and Carol Burnett.

All in the Family dealt with race, abortion, women’s rights, marriage, labor and war. With large doses of humor, All in the Family injected serious social topics into conversations in my house.

How could it not? It featured Archie Bunker, the quintessential bigot, espousing ideas that you did not previously see discussed in mainstream entertainment channels, along with pushback from the rest of the characters. A kid like me was bound to ask his parents about it.

All in the Family was the number one show in America for five years. Across the country, millions of families just like mine listened to those same discussions about societal topics. Week after week, year after year, families across the nation based conversations on identical source material.

Obviously, not everyone agreed with the overarching liberal message of the show. I’m sure some agreed with everything Archie said. The key is that we all had the same script. Those who agreed with Archie’s bigoted positions still heard the opposing view. Even if they rejected it, they might at least have empathy for those who subscribed to it.

Flash forward a half century. We have nothing like All in the Family. We have no communal mass entertainment channels to spark conversations. Television is splintered into countless channels, and that’s in addition to unlimited YouTube and Tiktok videos. People who embrace the philosophy of Archie Bunker today are surrounded in their world by people who feel the same way, rarely, if ever, to be confronted with the opposing view. People who espouse liberal views don’t interact with people like Archie.

Even the national news media are splintered. People who watch Fox News see only the stories that portray their candidates in a favorable light. People who watch other channels get the opposite. Rarely does anyone cross over to understand what the others are seeing. 

The result is we have no empathy for each other. We don’t see both sides.

I’ve had a good taste of this in the emails and texts I’ve received since Tuesday’s elections. People who believe, as I do, that Donald Trump is the worst human being ever elected to the presidency are despondent, despairing and furious with those who cast ballots to return him to the White House. Many of tthose who voted for him are ebullient, insulting and graceless in castigating me and anyone who voted against Trump.

I sent a note to one of those who was despairing, and at her suggestion, forwarded it to the 2,700+ people who subscribe to text messages I send each day about newsroom thoughts. Nearly 400 responded, mostly with thanks, so I repeat it here:

The fight to preserve democracy that began with our Revolutionary War never ends. Sometimes, that battle seems bleak. Sometimes, it is so easy we take our liberty for granted. Our country has always been divided. Remember, half the nation once fought like mad to preserve their right to own other humans. Today we awaken to a new landscape, knowing we will need clear resolve to ensure future generations experience the grand experiment that this nation has been for us. The moment we stop fighting to maintain what we value, we begin to lose it. We need challenges now and then to remind us, for it is the doom of our species to forget… Hang in there. The journey is long. 

The gist of that message is that if you’re one of those who are upset about Tuesday’s results, get yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again, to quote a Jerome Kern tune. That’s what Trump supporters did these last four years. We have another election in 2028. Aim for it. That’s the beauty of our democracy. Every four years, we get to start all over again -- all the while, voicing our opinions and standing up for our ideals.

But, those opposed to Trump should try to understand those who elected him. We’re in a democracy, and the majority ruled. There are reasons they voted the way they did, and as hard as those reasons might be for Trump opponents to understand, trying is worth the effort. We should all hear the arguments on both sides of the issues, just as viewers of All in the Family heard them in the 1970s.

Readers have been asking me this week how our newsroom will handle what’s ahead. It’s an odd question, I think. We’ll do what we always do: cover and analyze the news and provide information and perspective you can’t get anywhere else. We’ll cover that news without bias. We’ll cover it by asking probing questions. We’ll explain the facts. (Remember, news coverage differs from opinion content.)

And, like All in the Family, we are that rare platform that still reaches people on all sides of the political spectrum. They come to us for local news and entertainment information, which they cannot find elsewhere, and they come for the coverage of Cleveland sports, which is unparalleled. 

We’re one of the last places where people of unlike minds gather.  If you subscribe to our platforms, you are helping make sure a place exists where people regularly see all sides of the issues and their elected leaders.

We’re looking forward in our newsroom, not back. There’s work to be done.

I'm at cquinn@cleveland.com

Thanks for reading