On Thursday, the name of Rick Tyler, independent candidate for U.S. Congress from Tennessee's 3rd District, spread across the country like an infectious disease via print, radio, television and the internet.
It, undoubtedly, was just what he wanted after scrutiny began into one of his campaign billboards that proclaimed "Make America White Again."
The billboard, according to Tyler, was taken down Wednesday without his authorization. But by that time, his Polk County home, the 3rd District and the rest of the country, to steal a line from Ray Stevens' 1974 novelty hit "The Streak," had "already been incensed."
A billboard which formerly featured a campaign sign for congressional candidate Rick Tyler that read "Make America White Again" is seen on Hwy. 411 on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Polk County, Tenn.
This WRCB photo shows Rick Tyler's campaign sign off Highway 411 in Polk County.Even in an odd election year when the country has the most unpopular major party presidential candidates in history, such a blatant racist statement seems like an outlier and has no business in any campaign.
Tyler's prospects in November, when he'll face incumbent Chuck Fleischmann or one of two Republican primary opponents, one of three Democratic challengers and two other independents, are next to nil. So the billboard simply may have been an attention-getter for his campaign.
But he says it's more, adding he wants to awaken a "sleeping giant" and lay "out the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
Yet, Tyler denies he's "racist" or a "white nationalist." He proclaims himself "an insurgent candidate," "ethnocentric" (evaluating other cultures by the standards of one's own culture) and says he's running "significantly to the right" of Fleischmann.
"My main impetus would be to stop all non-white immigration into the U.S.," he said.
The issue of how the country should handle immigration is a legitimate issue; a phrase that calls out the worst of the Jim Crow era is something else.
Condemnation of the billboard came swiftly from Fleischmann, Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Ryan Haynes and Republican primary challenger Geoff Smith, who called for Tyler to get out of the race.
We support his right to be in the race but don't know why he'd want to be. His reputation has already preceded him, so wherever he goes for the rest of the campaign he'll only be known as the guy with the racist billboard.
But Tyler seems to be a slow learner. After all, in discussing the offensive phrase (a takeoff from Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again"), he asked, "What's the big deal with making America white again?"
Perhaps he should ask the American Indians what the big deal is. After all, they were here first.