Who would you honestly consider to be an ideal ‘Role Model’?

Donald Trump (left), and Bill Cosby

A couple months back, a news reporter asked then-incumbent candidate Kelly Ayotte if she would tell her kids to use Donald Trump — who was then, the Republican nominee for President — as a, “Role Model”. The question was part of a televised debate for U.S. Senator in New Hampshire.

Senator Ayotte initially said that she hoped that the Reporter would ask her opponent in that particular Debate, then-Governor Maggie Hassan, a similar type question about if HER kids ought to view the Democrat Presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton as a “Role Model”. Needless to say, the Reporter never bothered to ask then-Governor Hassan that question.

But Senator Ayotte, at that time, said she had no qualms about Mr. Trump serving as a “Role Model” for her kids. Then a week or two after this debate, an audio tape emerged from a popular show of about 11 years ago, which Trump said — unknowing that a microphone was ‘on’ during his conversation — some disparaging things about women, which Trump later publicly apologized for and referred to as, “locker room talk”. Ayotte would soon recant her statement from that debate and said she could no longer support Trump in the Presidential race and publicly said she would Write-in vice presidential candidate Mike Pence for President during the Election.

But in fairness to Mr. Trump, do even Parents qualify as ideal “Role Models” for our children? I don’t think so.

About 10-15 years ago, I used to have my two sons over my apartment every weekend and one of the things they would want to watch was, The David Chappelle Show on the Comedy Central network. Needless to say, I was absolutely stunned when I heard Chappelle’s rather frequently referring to other Black men and women by, “the ‘N’ word”. I immediately thought to myself, how many Caucasian public figures have been literally destroyed over referring to Blacks by the ‘N’ word, YET, here we’ve got this seemingly popular Black comedian blatantly spewing this out in reference to other Black people with no adverse consequences whatsoever. Un-BLEEPIN-believable!!!

I did tell my sons — whether you find David Chappelle funny or not — DON’T EVER LET ME HEAR ABOUT YOU REFERRING TO A BLACK PERSON BY, THE ‘N’ WORD. I remember bringing up at the time, what a tremendous “Role Model” Bill Cosby was to the American Black community. Cosby, who was obviously old enough to be Chappelle’s dad, had a situation comedy TV show, which he played the role of a Doctor, the actress portraying his wife played the role of an Attorney, and his kids mostly faced situations common in most affluent American communities. Needless to say, “The Cosby Show” basically put Black people in a very unusual and positive spotlight.

But as the old cliche goes, Looks Can Be Deceiving, as it would be proven several years later, that Bill Cosby certainly more Demons “in his closet” and could aptly make David Chappelle look like an Altar Boy.

Apparently, Cosby had been drugging numerous women over the years to make them physically helpless so he could proceed to have sexual relations with them — and then claim afterwards it was all “concentual”.

In other words, I was obviously 180 degrees off-base on assuming that Bill Cosby served as some type of “great Role Model” for the American Black community. So do I view myself as a great “Role Model” for my own sons? Not really — there are a lot of things I’ve done in my life which I’m not too proud of and I would hate to see my boys go down that exact same path.

Personally, Jesus Christ is the ONLY role model I would hope my sons someday will choose to follow. Could they possibly go through their whole lives without any sin — heck no, nobody’s perfect. But in the end, Jesus is the only way we can ever attain Salvation — with everything (and everybody) else, we just consistently miss the mark on ever possibly getting it right.

NH Libertarian Party’s apparent message to voters: Just continue supporting Democrats & Republicans

U.S. Senate candidate Brian Chabot’s official campaign photo

I happen to run a local access cable TV show in the city of Nashua NH called, Frankly Speaking. Granted, it’s not exactly Hardball with Chris Matthews, or even The O’Reilly Factor, but after one of my shows air for a week on Nashua (NH’s second most populated city) cable TV, it would permanently be posted on my YouTube page — which is, the World Wide Web.

If you’re a candidate running for elected public office, why wouldn’t you want to pursue this type of widespread visibility for your respective campaign? The political stakes become even higher when you’re a candidate representing a rather obscure Party, that’s usually never mentioned in the same breath as Democrats and Republicans.

For example, let’s take a look at the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire.

In this surprisingly oddball Presidential year, which the two major party front-runners, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, have the absolute lowest popularity ratings for any leading candidates of any U.S. Presidential race, why wouldn’t the Libertarian Party want to exploit this situation and give American voters a viable third party option and, at least, establish a strong reputation for many future elections to come?

Meet Brian Chabot, the 2016 Libertarian’s candidate for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire

About three weeks ago, on May 8, I emailed Mr. Chabot via his Facebook fan page to invite him as a guest on my TV show. Unfortunately, his regular campaign website, BrianChabot.org , doesn’t offer any capability for people to contact Mr. Chabot. On the Facebook fan page, however, it did state that my message was viewed on the same date I sent it, May 8th. Since that date, I’ve heard nothing from Mr. Chabot even though he posted a message about Rand Paul on his Facebook fan page on May 26.

Apparently, Mr. Chabot has something to do with computers as his listed profession and had an unsuccessful run as the Libertarian Party’s U.S. Rep candidate for NH’s second Congressional district in 2014. Chabot also uses a Nashua Post Office Box for his mailing address, so he probably has about a 20 minute commute — or less — to the studio where I tape my TV show.

There’s not too much information on the Internet beyond his own campaign website and his Facebook page regarding Chabot. It sort of calls into question if Chabot is running for U.S. Senate as sort of a lottery ticket, and if he should win by virtue of the Democrat and Republican candidates cutting each others’ throats, Chabot would simply slide into the office and start grossing an annual salary of $174,000 — or, $1,044,000 over the six-year term. All at the American taxpayers’ expense. I have a gut feeling that Chabot doesn’t make anything close to that in his current salary.

And if he should actually get elected, forget about impeaching Chabot from office unless he commits a serious crime or something, he’ll definitely be NH’s U.S. Senator for the next six years.

But maybe there’s a good reason as to why Chabot never responded to my request for a TV interview. Let’s take a look at some of the stuff this guy has posted on his website. This was from a section called, Q & A:

[question: What’s the meaning of life?

answer: We all know that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42. I know where my towel is.

question: If I want to work 90 hours a week in a knife-sharpening factory, should I be allowed to?

answer: Why not? If it is your choice, you should be able to choose to do what you want, so long as it does not infringe on the rights of others to do the same.

question: Do you prefer rivers, oceans or lakes?

answer: Each in their own manner.

question: What do you think of Ayn Rand and Objectivism?

answer: I find her writing sophomoric, unenlightened, and boring while I find her political her views inhumane. In short: I am not a fan.]

Dude…Seriously??? What exactly were you smoking, Brian, when you were posting these questions and answers to your campaign website? Furthermore, are there any questions as to why most people never take the Libertarian Party seriously?

This little gem was taken from a section of this campaign website Chabot refers to as, Biography:

[“…Somewhat after that time, Brian met some less than reputable associates and got involved in the local militia movement. The local group was far removed from the stereotype, and appealed to Brian’s call to public service. In 1996, an associate, a supply sergeant in the Army National Guard,, also involved in the local group managed to talk Brian into participating in the theft of some equipment from Fort Devens. As a result of this, Brian was sentenced to 5 months in a halfway house and 5 months in-house detention and 3 years of probation. While serving this sentence, he made a decision to change his life for the better…”]

First of all, I believe that nobody’s perfect and everybody deserves as a second chance. However, this definitely deserves a little more explanation, along with your current job description.

Here’s a comment Chabot posted to his own Home page back in 2014 to announce his intention to run for U.S. Senate this year. I won’t post all of his points, only the ones that make the guy sound hypocritical on snubbing my interview request:

[November 5, 2014 at 5:11 pm
US Senate 2016
Posted by Brian in Personal, Politics

Yesterday was the election. Today, I would like to announce my intention to run for New Hampshire’s seat in the US Senate in 2016. To do this, I hope to start ramping up support *now*. Let’s take our time, do it right, and make it happen in 2016.

Here is what we need to do:

2. Focus our communications on *moderate* and *accepted* ideas pushing in the direction of Liberty.

4. Quiet the extremists among us and give voice to reasonable ideas.

5. Begin a Public Affairs Campaign *NOW*.

6. Stay on top of current public opinion and work it to our advantage.

7. Foster transparency at all levels.

8. Encourage public participation (polls? Forums?)

9. Refrain from negative campaigning: Do not attack opponents by name.

10. Focus on how the Libertarian choice will benefit the People.

We really need to take this time to establish ourselves as the sensible choice, but we also need to make it clear we are serious enough to convince those who think we are not “viable.” We need to make it clear that we CAN win.]

And what better way to accomplish that objective than to come on TV shows like, ‘Frankly Speaking’ and make your issues known to the people of New Hampshire?

Contacting the New Hampshire Libertarian Party on May 9th

Almost simultaneously with Brian Chabot, I wanted to get some head honcho from the Libertarian Party on my show to talk about the 2016 NH State and National elections in general. First I called its toll-free number, (800) 559-LPNH — and without any type of greeting to at least identify the State’s headquarter office of the Libertarian Party, it went straight to the voicemail telling me to just leave a message. I also called weekdays during normal business hours hoping to get a real person, but again, it just went straight to the voicemail to leave a message. How incompetent and unprofessional!

I noticed that the State’s Libertarian Party had a Manchester Post Office Box which, assuming it’s located in that city, puts it about 45 minutes from where I do my TV interviews. So instead, I proceeded to email them at info@lpnh.org . As with Mr. Chabot, I’ve gotten zero response from them since I sent my email to them almost three weeks ago.

I think the two popular cliches that readily come to mind here are: ‘any port in the storm’ and ‘beggars can’t be choosy’. I mean if the Libertarian Party was well-known and well-established in New Hampshire and the United States, it could afford to blow off media interviews every now and then — but that just ain’t the case. The Democrats and Republicans have probably become two very dysfunctional political parties but, at least, voters feel much safer going with ‘the Devil they know as opposed to the Devil they don’t know’.

So if the Libertarian Party really doesn’t want my vote, I’m certainly not going to twist their arm or hold a gun to anybody’s head to get information on its candidates. I’ll just plan on going to the polls, holding my nose and voting either Democrat or Republican just like I’ve been doing all of my life.