The shameful liberal slander campaign against Stephen Moore, who just withdrew his name from consideration for a seat at the Federal Reserve, will not discourage President Trump from appointing a true economic growth hawk to the central bank. If anything, it will only strengthen his determination to shake up a moribund government institution that the political establishment has considered untouchable for far too long.
There is simply no question that Moore was an excellent candidate to be a governor of the Federal Reserve. His 30 years of experience in economic policymaking, decades of national public commentary, and leadership at a number of prominent conservative institutions, including the Club for Growth, have made him a venerable repository of successful economic solutions. Liberals nonetheless tried to distort his impressive background to make it seem as though he lacked the right credentials for this job.
{mosads}The fact that Moore has “only” a masters degree in economics was used against him as though a higher doctoral degree is somehow a key requirement to sit on the board. In reality, however, board members of the Federal Reserve routinely do not hold doctors of philosophy degrees. This includes the current chairman, Jerome Powell, along with two other current governors. It is an executive branch appointment charged with oversight, not an academic job to break ground in quantitative research.
Sadly, the attacks did not end there. They just became more personal in nature. In a desperate attempt to destroy his reputation and impugn his character, liberal journalists pored over his hundreds of published articles, media appearances, and offhand jokes, pulling quotes stripped of any context to make him seem sexist and racist. They twisted uncontroversial statements of fact, such as the notion that the inability of American men to earn enough to support a family is having a detrimental effect on family formation, to make his remarks sound like attacks on women and equality.
Worst of all, they dredged up personal details of Moore from his divorce proceedings and even got a judge to unseal the records after his former wife had attempted to keep them private. This had nothing to do with his qualifications for the Federal Reserve and everything to do with the desire of liberals to destroy him as part of their political battle against Trump.
Of course, the automatic defensive response of liberals to his candidacy was not entirely surprising. The American economy, marked by the most robust growth in over a decade and the lowest unemployment rate this country has experienced since the 1960s, is the single greatest stumbling block for Democrats vying for the White House in the election next year.
No matter how much they try to play up their Green New Deal or stoke fears about white nationalism, Democrats know that if the economy keeps going the way it is, they are sunk and Trump will cruise to reelection. That is precisely why they were so desperate to tank the nomination of Moore and convince Trump to choose some establishment lackey who will seek to undermine our ongoing national renaissance in the economy. It is also why the president will never give in to meet their outrageous demands.
The disgraceful character assassination of Moore proved what Trump knew all along, which is that the liberal political establishment will do everything in its power to protect the Federal Reserve from the genuine growth hawks. But as he has demonstrated, Trump is not afraid of taking on the Washington swamp. If he cannot have Moore, the president will simply appoint someone else as his growth hawk at the Federal Reserve.
Herman Cain is chief executive officer of The New Voice. He is a former Republican presidential candidate and a former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Follow him on Twitter @TheHermanCain.