Until Archie Bunker came along we Americans pretty much kept dumb thoughts to ourselves. In 1971 he entered our living rooms, and for twelve years we laughed at his diatribes against blacks, women, and foreigners. He had an opinion about everything, with little regard for the facts or for other people’s feelings.

Archie wanted the world to be as it used to be: a time when a white man, no matter how low his status, knew that at least he was better than a woman, an African American, or an immigrant. But his white male privilege was being challenged. African Americans were moving into his neighborhood, taking jobs previously held by white men. Women were moving out of the invisibility of home and hearth, also taking jobs previously held by white men. For all his bluster, Archie was a frightened man, scared of a changing world, one in which his privilege as a white man wasn’t going to hack it anymore.

Now Donald Trump is admired because he “tells it like it is,” “says what needs to be said.” Like Archie he’s striking a chord that gets to the heart of many Americans’ fears, especially those of us who are white and older. For the world in which we came of age no longer exists. We might be called the Left Behind Generation, left behind by a changing social ethos and technology. We’re surrounded by images of sex and violence. Gays have refused to stay in the closet. African Americans in government are deciding the country’s future. We’ve barely caught on to email, Facebook, and Twitter before our grandchildren have moved on to new technologies. Celebrities featured in the news are people we’ve never heard of. And there are all the international threats, ISIS and terrorists.

It’s easy for Trump and other politicians to play into our fears, to resurrect a demagoguery that blames immigrants, the other party, homosexuals, atheists. They would have us believe that their toughness can turn back the calendar, rid the country of threats to our sense of well being. Instead of those who appeal to the Archie Bunker in us, we need leaders who nurture our noblest qualities: compassion, generosity, an openness to new ideas. Leaders who can unite young and old, black and white, foreign born and native born.

Archie entertained us, but few of us would want him for President.