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When Walter Mondale the pioneering vice president under President Carter ended up on the losing end of Ronald Reagan’s landmark 49-state landslide in 1984, he fretted that it would dominate, even warp, his legacy.
But in reality Mondale, who as a senator was a spokesman for racial justice and an opponent of the Vietnam War, was a fiery reformer who selected the first female member of a national political ticket; an introspective populist who tried to rally Americans to care for the poor during the Reagan-era ascendancy of industrialists and bankers; and, in retirement, a beloved senior statesman of the Democratic Party and sober-minded prairie practitioner of common sense.
A half-century after its bracing debut, sitcom âAll in the Familyâ speaks to todayâs conflicts
The issues and lessons of âAll in the Familyâ still resonate
By David M. Shribman Globe Correspondent,Updated January 9, 2021, 3:54 p.m.
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Actor Carroll O Connor as Archie Bunker in All in the Family. AP
One of them spewed ethnic slurs. Another was flighty and yet grounded. A third loved to dance, and danced around her parentsâ bickering. And the last of them
was a rebel without a pause.
They were Archie, Edith, Gloria, and Meathead. Actually the fourth oneâs name was Mike but few today remember that. Even now, a half-century later, they need no introduction, nor