If Joseph Smith had been elected President, would polygamy be commonplace and admirable in America today?

Question

If Joseph Smith had been elected President, would polygamy be commonplace and admirable in America today?

Answer 1

Probably not.  The puritanical attitudes of the day would have put the lid on that!

Answer 2

No, because Joseph Smith would be answerable to the entire US, not just a certain group. If he were to become president, he would have been just like any other president.

When JFK was elected, the US did not become a puppet govt of the Vatican like everyone at the time who was against JFK thought.

This is the same reason why Al Smith in the 30s was not elected.

Protestant Americans just say things about the Presidential Candidates who are not of the same religion or denomination to scare people.

Yes, it was possible for him to be elected. The same reason why people like Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Millard Fillmore, and others who got elected. I imagine if if he went for the Presidency, he would have toned down his stances and become more mainstream. The same for other Presidents who have done it and won.

Answer 3

If he had been elected, that would indicate people were willing to follow him.

Since he advocated a theocracy, they would have been forced to follow his ideas and we'd be living in a state like Iran.

Of course, he had no chance and he knew that. He had some success in changing election results in states by promising Mormons would vote in a block and he wanted to try it nationally to see if he could sway leaders in DC.

He wrote Henry  Clay a letter claiming that he had 200,000 Mormon votes behind him. There were actually less than 20,000 Mormons at the time, including children and recent immigrants who couldn't vote yet.

Americans were staunchly against polygamy at the time. They saw through his practice of it as a cover for philandering. The rumors that came out of Nauvoo and Missouri were a big part of the reason the Mormons were so unwelcome.

Answer 4

Seeing how we was murdered for real (yes I said murdered, not martyred). It would be safe to say that he would be assasinated before being elected (that's assuming there were enough brainwashed people to elect him in the first place).

You would have to be killed for a legitimate cause to considered a martyr in my book. Being an adulterous story teller does not qualify him as a prophet. Especially when so much of what he stood for and did has been proved to be heresy long ago. The facts are out there, you just have to be willing to accept the truth.

Answer 5

NO! It would not be possible for him to GET elected! Point is therefore moot.

Answer 6

No because Congress was against the practice during that time and would not have passed any law like that.

His slave policy of abolishing slavery and compensating the owners financially was unpopular and he would not have been elected.

Answer 7

Joseph Smith would only be elected President if Mormons were in the majority in the U.S.  And if Mormons were in the majority in the U.S., then polygamy would be legal.