Trump Federal Reserve Nominee Stephen Moore Is A Misogynist And An Elitist
I wrote a piece on April 8 on Trump’s two terrible choices for slots on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. In that piece, I pointed out that Herman Cain and Stephen Moore weren’t qualified to serve fourteen year terms on the Fed. Both of them have extreme views and are partisan hacks. Moreover, both of them have personal baggage which should disqualify them from holding such a powerful and prestigious position.
Herman Cain recently withdrew his nomination for the Fed due to a lack of sufficient support in the Senate. Four U.S. Senators indicated that they were opposed to Cain’s nomination. Unfortunately, neither Fischer nor Sasse was among those GOP Senators that opposed Cain.
Since Cain withdrew, the news about about Stephen Moore has steadily gotten worse. He was already a terrible nominee who wasn’t qualified for the this powerful position due to his partisanship, track record of being wrong and personal failings. It turns out that Moore is also a terrible sexist who doesn’t believe in democracy. Talk about disqualifying!
Moore was a writer for National Review and in his columns he wrote the following:
“Women should be banned from refereeing, announcing or beer vending at men’s college basketball games.”
“And while I’m venting on the subject, here’s another travesty: in playground games and rec leagues these days, women now feel free to play with the men — uninvited in almost every case.”
“Women are sooo malleable! No wonder there’s a gender gap.”
Stephen Moore, on college, in 2000: “The women seemed to survive just fine. If they were so oppressed and offended by drunken, lustful frat boys, why is it that on Friday nights they showed up in droves in tight skirts to the keg parties?”
On wages, in 2014: “What are the implications of a society in which women earn more than men? We don’t really know, but it could be disruptive to family stability. If men aren’t the breadwinners, will women regard them as economically expendable?”
How can anybody who is supposed to set interest rates and regulate the money supply, serve all Americans fairly with this mindset? This is just absolutely outrageous and reactionary.
Moore also has reactionary views about democracy. Moore has said: “Capitalism is a lot more important than democracy. I’m not even a big believer in democracy. I always say that democracy can be two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner.”
Moore’s view on maintaining the current broken capitalist system against the will of the majority is a common belief among the radical right. Most of them have been smart enough not to articulate that view publicly. In any event, today’s GOP has used dark money, gerrymandering, and voter suppression/I.D. laws to allow the GOP donor class to govern against the will of the majority.
Once again, Moore’s disqualifying views render him unfit to serve on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. As a member of the Fed, it is obvious that he would regulate the economy to benefit the top 1% at the expense of everybody else.
My educated guess is that Sasse and Fischer will vote to confirm Moore’s nomination in spite of these new and damaging revelations. (Both of them did vote in 2017 to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.) In any event, we should call our two Senators and urge a no vote on this awful nomination. This may be an obscure appointment that doesn’t get much attention but it is one of the most important picks that a president will make.