The way I remember it was that Archie did not idolize FDR. The first visit by Maude on All in the Family displayed that! Archie destroyed FDR on that episode. (It was Edith’s, and cousin Maude’s side of the family that though FDR was great. Archie was pro-union as you said though.)
Archie Bunker : [Maude refuses to get out of Archie’s chair] Well, I got the secret weapon that can lay this little lady right away. Here we go. This country was ruined by Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
Cousin Maude : You’re fat.
Archie Bunker : Sticks and stones may break my bones, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt...
Edith Bunker : Archie, you promised never to say that name again in front of Maude.
Archie Bunker : Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
Edith Bunker : [to Maude] He don’t mean nothing. His whole family was for Roosevelt.
Archie Bunker : That was for two terms. But that was it. We didn’t know the guy was going to hold on to the job like a pope!
No he did not. He also doesn’t fit into what the Left regards as the conservative constituency...he isn’t a fat cat CEO or a religious fundamentalist. He’s a blue collar union worker. Norman Lear said that one of the biggest leaps of faith he was asking audiences to make is to imagine that Caroll O’Connor was actually NOT Irish Catholic.
It's been a good 40 years since I watched that show.
(Maude refuses to get out of Archie’s chair)
Archie: Well I got the secret weapon that can lay this little lady right away. Here we go, This country was ruined by Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Cousin Maude: You’re fat.
Archie: Sticks and stones may break my bones but Franklin Delano Roosevelt...
Edith: Archie you promised never to say that name again in front of Maude
Archie: Franklin Delano Roosevelt!
Edith to Maude: He don’t mean nothing His whole family was for Roosevelt.
Archie: That was for two terms But that was it. We didn’t know the guy was going to hold on to the job like a pope!