Shortly After The Passing Of Legendary Actor Kirk Douglas, Letter He Once Wrote Warning Americans About The Dangers Of Trump Re-Emerges

It's a warning that is still relevant in 2020.


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Legendary actor Kirk Douglas passed away at the age of 103 on Wednesday, but he leaves behind not only a treasure trove of film roles, but also a political legacy that includes a warning about President Donald Trump.

Born to immigrant parents in 1916, Kirk Douglas served in the United States Navy during World War II to fight fascism abroad, only to be accidentally wounded by a depth charge in 1944.

Upon being discharged, he would pursue a career in film, becoming a major part of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Douglas has never shied away from voicing his political views, even as Republicans tell actors and athletes to keep quiet.

A longtime Democrat, Douglas played a role in ending the Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s resulting from the witch hunt for Communists orchestrated by Republicans on the House Un-American Activities Committee.

More than six decades later in 2016, Douglas would again make his political views known, this time penning a letter warning America about then-candidate Donald Trump that is especially relevant now with the 2020 Election only months away.

“I’ve…lived through the horrors of a Great Depression and two World Wars, the second of which was started by a man who promised that he would restore his country it to its former greatness,” Douglas wrote. “I was 16 when that man came to power in 1933. For almost a decade before his rise he was laughed at ― not taken seriously. He was seen as a buffoon who couldn’t possibly deceive an educated, civilized population with his nationalistic, hateful rhetoric.”

“The ‘experts’ dismissed him as a joke,” he continued. “They were wrong.”

He then referenced anti-immigration remarks Trump delivered in Arizona that reminded him of Adolf Hitler.

“Until now, I believed I had finally seen everything under the sun,” he wrote. “But this was the kind of fear-mongering I have never before witnessed from a major U.S. presidential candidate in my lifetime.”

“I have lived a long, good life,” he wrote before issuing a warning. “I will not be here to see the consequences if this evil takes root in our country. But your children and mine will be. And their children. And their children’s children.”

Sadly, Douglas lived long enough to witness the caging of children by the Trump administration inside what amount to concentration camps on the border. Thousands of children have been ruthlessly separated from their parents and locked away without proper medical and hygienic care. Many are forced to sleep on the floor. Some have died.

This is just one of the many horrors Trump has brought upon our nation since taking office. But Americans have a chance to rectify the mistake of 2016, and Douglas would likely express the same belief he expressed then as November approaches.

“All of us still yearn to remain free,” he concluded. “It is what we stand for as a country. I have always been deeply proud to be an American. In the time I have left, I pray that will never change. In our democracy, the decision to remain free is ours to make.”

The choice is clear. Americans can either vote in defense of freedom by overwhelmingly rejecting Trump at the ballot box, or we can watch democracy die by giving Trump a second term. Let’s hope we choose freedom and keep the democracy Douglas cherished so much alive.

Featured image via Wikimedia Commons

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