To the Editor:

Re “Kirk Douglas, 1916-2020: From Spartacus to van Gogh, Leading Man of a Golden Age” (front page, Feb. 6):

I see a synchronicity between the death of the storied actor Kirk Douglas and the abasement of a once-principled political party, the G.O.P.

In the 1960 film “Spartacus,” a glorious epic about an ex-gladiator who led a slave revolt against Rome, the dramatic climax occurs when Crassus (Laurence Olivier), the victorious Roman commander, issues a bleak choice to the defeated remnants of Spartacus’s army: All survivors will be crucified, unless they surrender the person or body of Spartacus.

Cleft-chinned Kirk Douglas, who plays Spartacus, rises, hoping to spare his comrades from crucifixion. He is immediately joined by Antoninus (Tony Curtis), the “singer of songs,” who shouts: “I am Spartacus!” One by one, bedraggled survivors rise to proclaim, “I am Spartacus!”

Of 53 G.O.P. senators, only Mitt Romney dared to embrace what could have been the Republicans’ “Spartacus” moment.