(Rick Tyler for Congress)

An independent candidate for Congress from Tennessee has been swept up in a wave of criticism for his campaign billboard vowing to “Make American White Again.”

Rick Tyler, who is running for the 3rd Congressional District in the northeastern part of the state, said he put up the billboard alongside Highway 411 in Polk County to make a point that “the ‘Leave It to Beaver,’ ‘Ozzie and Harriet,’ ‘Mayberry’ America of old was vastly superior to what we are experiencing today.”

In a Facebook post Wednesday night, Tyler wrote: ”It was an America where doors were left unlocked, violent crime was a mere fraction of today’s rate of occurrence, there were no car jackings, home invasions, Islamic Mosques or radical Jihadist sleeper cells.”

But the billboard’s message, a spin on Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan, has been widely derided as a display of bigotry and racism.

It was taken down Tuesday night, according to ABC affiliate WTVC.

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(Rick Tyler for Congress)

Tyler did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post. But his campaign website, featuring an illustration of the White House surrounded by a dozen Confederate flags, explains his motivation for the advertisement:

The “Make America White Again” billboard advertisement will cut to the very core and marrow of what plagues us as a nation. As Anne Coulter so effectively elucidates in her book, Adios America, the overhaul of America’s immigration law in the 1960’s has placed us on an inevitable course of demise and destruction. Yes…the cunning globalist/Marxist social engineers have succeeded in destroying that great bulwark against statist tyranny…the white American super majority. Without its expedited restoration little hope remains for the nation as a whole.

[The 'terrifying' Confederate statue some Tennesseans want to hide]

Rick Tyler. (Courtesy of Rick Tyler for Congress)

Tyler, a 58-year-old self-described “entrepreneur, pastor and political candidate,” ran as an independent in the 2014 Senate race, getting less than half a percentage point of the vote against Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.).

He also owns a restaurant called Whitewater Grill in Ocoee, Tenn., an unincorporated community in Polk County.

But it’s his recent campaign tactic that thrust him into the national spotlight.

In announcing his roadside statement, Tyler proposed several other billboard options on his campaign website, including one that reads, “Fight Federal Tyranny. Stop the Muslim Invasion.”

NBC affiliate WRCB reported that Tyler’s campaign put another billboard along Highway 64 showing the White House surrounded by Confederate flags. At the top of that billboard are Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous words: “I Have a Dream.”

The advertisements angered some area residents and community and state leaders.

“There’s no room for this type of hateful display in our political discourse,” Ryan Haynes, the Tennessee Republican Party chairman, told WRCB in a statement. “Racism should be rejected in all its heinous forms in the Third Congressional District and around the country.”

Rep. Charles J. “Chuck” Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), who currently represents the 3rd District, also spoke out against Tyler’s message.

“I totally and unequivocally condemn the billboard and Mr. Tyler’s message and will vigorously fight any form of racism in the 3rd district of Tennessee or anywhere else in the nation,” the congressman said in a statement to the news station.

Others have rebuked Tyler on his restaurant and campaign Facebook pages, charging that Tyler is ”peddling the same old hateful KKK garbage in a new package” and has ”dishonored the state of Tennessee.”

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“My family was here long before the Revolutionary War and we have served in every armed conflict this nation has been involved since we began,” one poster wrote. “Many of those ancestors were from Warren County, TN and are rolling over in their graves that you are still perpetuating the myth that we are superior over others because of our lighter colored skin. You do not represent the values of modern day enlightened Tennesseans. Crawl back under your rock of disgusting racism and take anyone who believes as you do with you.”

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Kelly McCarthy @KellyMcCarthyTN

Congressional candidate Rick Tyler says he stands behind his decision to create “Make America White Again” billboard

3:07 PM – 22 Jun 2016 · Tennessee, USA

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Amid the backlash, Tyler posted a lengthy response on Facebook, thanking those who participated in “the controversy spawned by the ‘Make America White Again’ billboard” while acknowledging ”‘frothing at the mouth lunatics’ who react in a completely irrational, emotional, Pavlovian dog fashion.”

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“You see,” Tyler wrote, “this is not a mere publicity stunt, but rather a calculated maneuver to dispense hardcore truth while simultaneously doing an end run around the iron curtain of censorship. As Orwell stated, ‘In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.’ Unfortunately, a globalist cartel has long held power in our nation, and in effect, there has already been a soft revolution wherein lawful constitutional government has been supplanted by a rogue band of oligarchic criminals.

“Those who seek to set things aright are actually counter-revolutionaries, endeavoring to facilitate the restoration of lawful, constitutional government.”

Here is Tyler’s statement in full:

Let me begin by thanking everyone that has gotten involved in the controversy spawned by the “Make America White Again” billboard on Highway 411 in Polk County. I am persuaded that the overwhelming majority of you are sincere and well intentioned. Obviously, there are the “frothing at the mouth lunatics” who react in a completely irrational, emotional, Pavlovian dog fashion. Fortunately, they are a small percentage of the whole—and even they are passionately sincere albeit ignorant, misguided and lacking in self control.

A PREDICTABLE AND DESIRED RESPONSE

Be assured, the response that has been engendered by the billboard is precisely what was expected and hoped for. You see… this is not a mere publicity stunt, but rather a calculated maneuver to dispense hardcore truth while simultaneously doing an end run around the iron curtain of censorship. As Orwell stated, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” Unfortunately, a globalist cartel has long held power in our nation, and in effect, there has already been a soft revolution wherein lawful constitutional government has been supplanted by a rogue band of oligarchic criminals. Those who seek to set things aright are actually counter-revolutionaries, endeavoring to facilitate the restoration of lawful, constitutional government.
Whether you realize it or not, you are all participating in this counter-revolutionary exercise irrespective of where you stand on the matter!
Indeed, the brainwashing may well be too far advanced, and there may be no chance of restoration, rejuvenation, and revival in our once great nation. Like the watchman spoken of in Ezekiel 33, some of us must sound the warning of the advancing and ominous peril that is encroaching upon our civilization as a whole. Like Nineveh, there could be great repentance and revival in America. If not, we will succumb to the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.
For those who are posturing in a high and mighty stance of ostensible moral superiority, I would caution you against falling into the trap of modernism and the liberal watering down of truth. Your fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers would have been entirely sympathetic and supportive of the preservation of a white super majority in America. They would have been utterly hostile to the concept of the mass nonwhite immigration that has ensued over the past half century. They would have never acquiesced to the schemes of forced racial integration foisted upon the states by a usurpatious federal government. By capitulating on these and other related issues, you are dishonoring your fathers and mothers of old in a flagrant and treacherous violation of the 4th Commandment. In the fulness of time, God will surely hold you accountable for this violation of his sacred law. As Isaiah 5:20 states, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

AM I A RACIST?

The charge of “racism” is the most flagrant and abusive canard of our time. Absurdly, those who bandie about the charge never bother to define its meaning. Is a racist one who harbors antipathy toward someone simply based on their ethnicity? If so only a foolish person would fit such a description. If, on the other hand, we are talking about someone who demonstrates greater affinity for his own racial family (your race is the extension of your biological family) then the charge would be truly preposterous. Ethnocentricity is completely healthy and normal and all races, except the white race, are encouraged to engage in and express it. The glaring double standard is all too obvious.

ABOUT THE BILLBOARD’S MESSAGE

The “Make America White Again” billboard is a takeoff on Donald Trump’s slogan of “Make America Great Again.” In a nutshell, it is stating that the “Leave It to Beaver, Ozzie and Harriet, Mayberry” America of old was vastly superior to what we are experiencing today. It was an America where doors were left unlocked, violent crime was a mere fraction of today’s rate of occurrence, there were no car jackings, home invasions, Islamic Mosques or radical Jihadist sleeper cells.
Additionally, government was much smaller, responsible, and accountable to the people. Yes, that Norman Rockwell America was immensely preferable to the rapidly deteriorating culture now engulfing us. Only the ignorant and misguided would resist its restoration and resuscitation. As set forth on the Tyler for Congress website, (www.ricktylerforcongress.com) a moratorium on nonwhite immigration and the abolition of policies that subsidize nonwhite birth rates would be two constructive actions toward beginning the long journey back toward sanity and stability in our beleaguered and foundering nation.

A WHITE SUPER MAJORITY

It is no coincidence that every nation being inundated by the teeming multitudes of the third world is a white nation. It is indisputable that the white race has achieved infinitely more in the way of technology, culture and innovation than the nonwhite civilizations of history.
The racial component of this phenomenon is all-important. In a blind, suicidal manner modern man overlooks this profound truth while plunging headlong toward destruction.

SOUNDING THE CLARION CALL

The Caucasian race has been inordinately blessed and favored by the God of scripture. It was among this people that the new covenant gospel of Jesus Christ took root, blossomed, and flourished. Western Christian civilization evolved in the ensuing centuries leading to the eventual rise of our beloved America of yesteryear. As time progressed however, our nation and people lost their way. America forsook the God of her fathers and turned to the false gods of the heathen world. Now we are a people under divine judgment with a very grim future staring us in the face.

The Tyler for Congress candidacy is a last ditch effort to challenge the descendents of America’s founders to “return to the ancient landmarks.” Scattered throughout the land are the proverbial seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. (I Kings 19:18) The remnant of God may not be large enough to facilitate restoration of that which has been lost… but we will proceed to carry the torch in the hope of miraculous and divine intervention.

The incumbent lawyer and representative of the 3rd Congressional District voted for the 1.1 trillion dollar spending bill in December; which among many nefarious expenditures allocated funding for the importation of 100,000 Syrian refugees, a large number of which are straight off of the Jihadist battlefield. A full-blown Muslim invasion is underway while a criminal, runaway federal government gobbles up what remains of liberty at breathtaking speed.

CONCLUSION

Amazingly, while being oblivious to the aforementioned circumstances plaguing our nation, a substantial number of low information citizens are easily whipped into a frenzy by the mythological enemy of “racism.” Sadly, it never occurs to the reactionary mob that they in fact, are guilty of the grievous sin of rejection of truth. Yet, just as Jesus was able to miraculously give sight to the blind, God is still in the business of peeling the scales off of men’s eyes. Yes, he gives grace to the humble but resisteth the proud. (James 4:6.)

Concerning the hostility emanating from various directions I would say the following:

We believe in Libertarian principles of free speech and freedom of association. All are free to go where they desire as well as refrain from going where they do not want to be. Of course, these same individuals will continue to patronize all manner of franchises and national chains that truly are the embodiment of corruption and exploitation. Yet another example of hypocrisy and double-standards.

Will the Rick Tyler for Congress campaign gain traction and become a force to be reckoned with? Only time will tell. When all is said and done however, the truth will prevail. Of that we can be assured.