Certainly if one is defending the idea of multiple marriage, one really doesn’t want to be defending this kind of abusive culture, but if one supports the idea of polyamory and take issue with the government criminalizing it, it might be hard to avoid ending up defending Mormons because they’re the ones being prosecuted for it. On the other hand, one could be defending that particular toxic culture which results in giving the appearance of defending polyamory in general, and it’s hard to tell which is which.
In the first case, the situation can end up being like when prosecutors angrily accusing marijuana-decriminalization advocates of wanting to free drug kingpins who tried to murder cops, etc. (but got jailed purely on drug charges). Those arguing for decriminalization end up functionally supporting violent drug dealers, but only because they feel, of all the things that person did, the thing that got them put away was the one thing they shouldn’t have been prosecuted for.
In this case, given the (insane, right-wing) context of his current appearance, I rather suspect a support, on his part, for the right-wing patriarchal nature of Mormon polygamy was at least what inspired him to take the stance (if not the whole point), rather than some general objection.
Yes, yes, absolutely - but his stated objection was to “morals legislation” that criminalized having multiple spouses, which theoretically would be bigger than just polygamy (and far, far more encompassing than that particular, patriarchal culture). I mean, yeah, I very much suspect he’s only interested in the patriarchal, right-wing, abusive version embodied by Mormon polygamy, contrary to what he claims, though.
It’s just that “I don’t think he should have been prosecuted for polygamy” necessarily leads to the conclusion, “Oh, you approve of everything else he did?” (Even if it might in this case.)