Brokerage Quotes
This was an oglique criticism of President Elect Donald Trump who, when the Obama Adninistration abstained, rather than veto, a UN Security Council Resoltion condeming the illegal settlements the Israeli government would not stop creatin g and enlarging on land that was suppsoed to be negotiated with the Palestinians, went on a tirade condemning the Obama Administration and articularing all the reasons that the Israelis beleived that building the settlments waa proper and within their rights, He was one iof the best advocates for the Israeli position. xxxxx
What is fascinating about this quotation is that although the head of a religion, Smith was not advocating the kinds of personal lifestyle issues of his church the way modern religious leaders do, but was concerned with the much larger issues of national banking, expansionism, corruption of the courts and judiciary, and land distribution. He was a classic reform candidate in that sense. Smith had written to most of the then likely Presidential candidates of both major parties asking for their position on the Mormons who were facing persecution wherever they went. None of the politicians would make any satisfactory commitments. Smith took Direct Action and became the only major religious official to have run for the Presidency of the United States until Pat Robertson tried and failed in 2000. Smith’s assassination shortly thereafter cut his run for the Presidency short before it made much headway and politically he had no chance to affect the race.
