Lear was smart...
he clearly understood, conservatism and the constitution but hated them.
he took the conservative theory for each issue and twisted it to make it look stupid. But the constitution and the conservative mindset are so strong, that the message came through as did the inherent destructive socialist mindset that Lear was trying to champion.
I was never a fan of the show because its obvious intent was socialist propaganda.But a Freeper pointed out to me that it was actually pretty good in rerun - because things that the show ridiculed back in the day were indisputably true by then. For example, ridicule of the idea that Walter Cronkite was liberal rather than objective now triggers shadenfreude, not anger.