William Shatner Has Been Careful to Stay out of Politics Throughout His Life

Now that he's 90 years old, William Shatner is looking back at the iconic life he's led. Although he's best known for his portrayal of Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek, the actor has also had a number of other plaudits over the course of his life. Although the actor is widely known, there are many who want to know more about his political views and what he's said about politics in the past. 

Throughout his life, William Shatner has worked hard to remain as apolitical as possible. In 2015 when Ted Cruz was running for president, he made fairly extensive comments about Star Trek. In those comments, he suggested that Captain Kirk may have been a Republican. 

“The original Star Trek was grittier,” he told The New York Times Magazine. “Kirk is working class; Picard is an aristocrat. Kirk is a passionate fighter for justice; Picard is a cerebral philosopher.” 

The senator from Texas was then asked whether he thought Kirk was a Republican or a Democrat. “I think it is quite likely that Kirk is a Republican and Picard is a Democrat," he said. 

William responded, and he didn't agree with Cruz's assessment. “Star Trek wasn’t political. I’m not political; I can’t even vote in the US,” he wrote on Twitter. “So to put a geocentric label on interstellar characters is silly.” 

As his comments made clear, William has taken pains to avoid voicing political opinions throughout his career. Although he's widely known in the US, the actor is actually Canadian, which is why he can't vote in the US. 

He doesn't engage politically, but William hasn't been afraid to engage in other matters that he finds important. 

Earlier this year, he tweeted about vaccines, suggesting that there was no scientific link between vaccination and Autism. The theory that the two are linked has been widely debunked, but it's still popular among a certain subset of the population and may be contributing to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

"There’s no proof of a link between vaccines & Autism," William tweeted. "The UK Doctor who reported it falsified his findings and is no longer a doctor." 

"Autism onset occurs about the time when children get their first vaccines so that may be one observation which makes people believe the link," he continued. 

Although he was just tweeting facts, there were some who accused William of taking a political stance after making that statement. In response, the actor asked how what he had said was political. 

William was pointing out that his simple statement of fact shouldn't be seen as political, even if our modern political climate makes it difficult to perceive anything through an apolitical lens. William tweets about vaccination quite frequently, but when he isn't taking on that serious subject, the actor might be tweeting about any number of other, more harmless topics. Whatever his politics are, it seems that Captain Kirk would rather spend his time talking about dogs, and who can blame him?