Scare tactics and smears are not a new weapon in the quiver of politics, and certainly not for liberal politicians.

The race for the governorship of North Carolina has seen some of the ugliest, most destructive usage of those tactics from the left – mainly out-of-state leftists – that have ever been employed in any race, anywhere, at any time.

Why?

Mainly because Democrats are genetically predisposed to attacking any success that they can’t lay claim to honestly, and then they lie about the rest.

In North Carolina, twenty years of Democrat governorships left the Tarheel state struggling near the bottom of the nation in education, taxation, employment, and overall fiscal health.

Former Charlotte mayor, Pat McCrory entered office in Raleigh on January of 2013. In less than four years, he has slashed taxes, attracted over 300,000 new jobs, cancelled federal debt to the tune of $2.6 billion, and built up a comfortable surplus.

In short, he’s done everything right, fiscally.

He’s also been a pretty bold proponent of social issues, implementing some of the strictest restrictions on abortion in the nation, and most recently, signing into law House Bill 2, which restricts access to public bathrooms and locker rooms to the sex assigned at birth.

Liberals, unable to attack his fiscal policy, have banked everything on proving that, not only is the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act (HB2) a violation of the civil rights of transgenders (It’s not), but that it will utterly destroy the economy of the state.

Since the passage of the bill, social justice idiots from around the nation have painted Governor McCrory as enemy #1. PayPal was the first to pull plans to set up shop in Charlotte.

Close behind, has-been artists, like Bruce Springsteen pulled concert plans.

The NCAA, followed by the ACC cancelled planned events and even rescinded championships.

WikiLeaks dumps revealed emails between North Carolina Democrats and the outside interests that fund McCrory’s opponent, state Attorney General Roy Cooper.

They were absolutely giddy over the notion that this would ruin the growing economy of the state. They would be able to point to this one moment in time and undo all the good Governor McCrory and a majority Republican state House and Senate had achieved.

What’s more, McCrory effectively rustled the jimmies of President Obama and his Department of (social) Justice, which will forever earn him hero status, in my eyes.

Democrats would see the state, and in fact, the entire nation burned to the ground, as long as they got to be the ones standing on top of the ashes when it was done.

The doom-and-gloom predictions of North Carolina Democrats, however, has failed to materialize in the way that they’d so desperately hoped.

The projection of economic loss given by the left has been anywhere from $5 million to $100 million.

Two separate economists’ reports have shown that not only is the state not sliding into certain economic ruin, but that any potential impact by HB2 is minor, at worst, and the economic engine is still humming along at a steady upward pace.

The reality of even the highest boogeyman figure of $100 million loss to the state is more nuanced than liberals want to discuss.

The hardest hit by the boycotts of the state will potentially be the hotel and restaurant industry. They count on the increased traffic of sporting events and concerts.

Now imagine this: That $100 million figure is predicated on hotels and restaurants in the area doing zero business, as a result of those cancelled games and concerts.

Not a single room will be rented out in that time period. Not a single meal will be served. They will have to board up the windows and padlock the doors until something new comes to town.

I won’t ask how they manage to remain a solvent business for the rest of the year.

On Friday morning, Governor McCrory delivered the checkmate moment to the entire argument of the left, in regards to that $100 million loss projection.

Governor Pat McCrory joined state and local economic development leaders today to celebrate a major economic development announcement that North Carolina was unanimously chosen to host the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) at Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring. Administered by the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), the WEG occurs every four years in the middle of the Olympic cycle and is the major international championship event for equestrian sport.

Get that.

Major event. North Carolina.

“I am confident that North Carolina will host the best games yet before the eyes of the world,” said Governor McCrory. “With the potential to be the largest sporting event in our state’s history, we look forward to welcoming competitors and spectators from around the world. This announcement will be a significant boost to North Carolina’s rapidly growing economy.”

Two years ago, the Games were hosted by Normandy, France. The 14-day event had an economic impact of $414 million and attracted more than 500,000 spectators from over 70 countries.

FEI attributed their decision to North Carolina’s infrastructure and the state-of-the-art facilities at Tryon International Equestrian Center.

If this event does even half as well as it did two years ago, it will cover the projected loss that Democrats are desperately wishing on the state, by double.

If it does at least as well as it did two years ago, well, Democrats can zip their lips and go to the bathrooms assigned to their DNA.

The Tryon Equestrian Partners has invested over $125 million over the last two years developing 1,500 acres in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to create an equestrian lifestyle destination and resort. The Tryon International Equestrian Center is the centerpiece of that effort. This venue includes 1,200 permanent stalls, 12 competition arenas, a lighted international arena that seats 6,000 to 12,000 with multiple VIP areas, a large covered/indoor arena that seats 5,000, as well as a world-class cross country course which support both Eventing and Driving. The site is located in North Carolina horse country which is accessible to hundreds of miles of equestrian trails to support Endurance.

It sounds amazing, actually.

The FEI rotates the location of the event every couple of years. In the past, Sweden, Italy, Spain, and Germany have also played host.

And now, the beautiful mountains of western North Carolina will be host.

With the amount of people who will likely attend, the economic impact will fan out and benefit a large section of the state.

This is amazing news.

Governor McCrory is at the forefront of making this a reality, and it’s happened, in spite of all the noise being made by Democrats about the impending doom of our state economy.

Well played, Governor.

Well played, indeed.