Conversations With the Hoff
Steve Hoffman—lovingly known far and wide (or at least across the Liberty Crack Media breakroom) as “the Hoff”—is our resident radical Conservatarian, a man who can quote the Founding Fathers faster than most people can microwave a burrito. A founding force behind Liberty Crack Media, the Hoff blends constitutional conviction with the charming subtlety of a bald eagle crash-landing through your living-room window to remind you about personal liberty. Whether he’s railing against government overreach, passionately defending your right to smoke a fine cigar, or delivering rants so entertaining they probably need their own FCC classification, Steve Hoffman remains the ideological caffeine jolt that keeps Liberty Crack Media gloriously wide awake.
Conversations With the Hoff
Interview with District 1 SC Candidate Tyler Dykes
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Steve speaks with Tyler Dykes running for Nancy Mace's current seat in the SC District One. He was cursed with controversy following the January 6th manufactured debacle and is ready to speak out on protecting his fellow Americans and their constitutional rights.
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It's a beautiful day on the South Strand. Welcome to Conversations with the Hoff. I'm Steve Hoffman, your host, and with me in the studio today is our glorious leader, the executive producer of Liberty Crack Media, Trip Detmering. Hello, everybody. As you all know, this is primary season in South Carolina, and our call and guest today is Tyler Dykes. He's one of over a dozen candidates who has thrown their hat into the ring to represent South Carolina's first congressional district, currently held by Nancy Mace. Tyler Dykes is a resident of Bluffton, South Carolina, and is currently running, as I just said, for South Carolina's first congressional seat. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and has been active in conservative political circles and veterans' communities. His 15 minutes of fame came as a result of his arrest during the January 6 Capitol Hill riots. He pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement and served a period of incarceration. But our glorious leader, Donald Trump, gave him a presidential pardon. Tyler has strong principled positions on border security, immigration enforcement, reducing the federal bureaucracy, limiting government authority, and a lot of opposition to DEI-based programs and federal institutions. He advocates for more restrained foreign policy and increased government accountability and transparency. He frames his run as a challenge to what he describes as political corruption, overreach, and a lack of representation of regular people. Sounds like somebody I could get behind. He's not your run-of-the-mill, milk toast, South Carolina Republican. So welcome to the show, Tyler.
SPEAKER_04Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, before we get into the specific platform stands outlined on your webpage, I'm sure our listeners would love to hear about your involvement in the J6 Capitol Hill riots.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. Well, the uh it's very interesting how the media likes to go around and say that I was attacked, like the mass media says I went out there just beating up cops and keeping the Capitol rioted. They make it seem like I burned the whole place down by myself. And that isn't really what happened. On that day, I went up there to protest and basically to want to have a recount of that election because there was so much fraud going on in 2020. So I went up there, I saw President Trump speak, and then he said, Go to the Capitol building and make your voices peacefully and patriotically heard. So I said, Okay, I'll do that. And I walked over from where the speech was being held, walked over to the East Retender Doors, and it was there that I witnessed the Capitol police deliberately attacking the crowd, and what we would later learn would be federal agitators within the crowd trying to push everybody to go forward to get everyone to go forward. So it was dual effort from the police instigating and then people in the crowd instigating that were FBI informants.
SPEAKER_00I heard that the Capitol Hill Police actually opened the doors to the Capitol to let you all in.
SPEAKER_04Yes, they did. The doors are magnetized. They could have made it so it wasn't possible to get in. And yet, by the time the crowd sort of pushed forward right outside the door, the cops opened the door from the inside and just gave up and let everybody walk in. They didn't even try to stop people once the doors were open.
SPEAKER_00I think the majority of of at least as conservative Americans know that there was kind of a what do you call it, a PSYOP or something put on by the FBI or the CIA? It was definitely an operation, that's for sure. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_04No, no, I just said it was definitely an operation, that's for sure. They were trying to attack everybody who was willing to stand against corruption.
SPEAKER_00So how long were you incarcerated?
SPEAKER_04Well, when I got arrested, I ended up getting uh put into solitary confinement for three days. I got out on bail to ankle monitor in home confinement for a year and a half. And then I went into federal prison and I spent about four to five months inside federal prison before getting pardoned.
SPEAKER_00Wow. What was it like in the prison?
SPEAKER_04It was interesting. I have to say that there was a lot of interesting stuff that was happening. They put me into a room with ten illegal alien cartel members from South America. And uh, I fully expect that the reason they put me there is because they wanted them to kill me. They they branded me as radical, right-wing extremists, racist, and hateful, and then they put me in a room with a whole bunch of cartel members. But uh luckily I speak a bit of Spanish, and so just for even trying to talk with them in their native language, they respected me for it and did not knife me in the middle of the night, probably like what the system was hoping would happen. So I actually had uh a lot easier of an experience than would be expected from federal prison, but it was still not fun. It was not a good experience.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, overall, I think you and uh many others who were jailed are a prime example of the weaponization of the federal agencies. Uh using the federal agencies to suppress uh political alternatives or political opposition. That that's what it what it sounds like to me. So that must have been a horrible experience. Let's get on to your positions that you have for uh running for the first congressional district. The first position that you uh talk about on your website has to do with fixing the economy. So, what would you do to fix the economy?
SPEAKER_04Well, fixing the economy and mass deportations, in my opinion, are very closely linked. Because a big part of the reason why people are suffering right now is because it's a lot of the stuff that, like the liberals are saying about the economy is correct. Productivity keeps going up and up and up and up, and the wages stay the same. Well, the reason for that is the fact that we keep bringing in millions and millions of people that are not born here in America. They'll come here and they'll work for a tenth of the price of an American citizen and they compete for the available jobs, then all the American citizens that are now cut out of those jobs are now also competing for other jobs. So it just completely drives down the average wages for the average person. And so my perspective is we have to deport every single illegal alien across the board, and that will begin, that will be the start of helping to get wages backed up. But then there's the secondary issue of a big part of the reason why so many companies are hiring foreigners to begin with is because of all the dang regulations and taxes for hiring an American citizen. It's just easier to pay someone under the table. And so, in order to help fix that problem, I also want to completely eliminate all payroll taxes that the employer has to pay in order to have an employee. Because I ran a business, I had five employees, I paid them what I thought was very well 25 to 30 an hour, depending on their position. And yes, they would only end up taking home $1,500 in a pay period, and I would have to spend $3,200 not only to pay them, but to pay the government and insurance. And so if we get rid of a lot of these payroll taxes, we could literally double the average wages for the average American citizen without affecting business profits. So if we do that, plus we deport all the illegals, there will be more jobs available, people will be able to be paid more, and businesses won't have to suffer from mass deportations. So I think that's one of the things that'll fix it.
SPEAKER_00You know, we we all of the income taxes should should be eliminated. And uh basically the these taxes that you're talking about that the employer has to pay or all his other taxes, they're anti-productivity, they're anti-job creation, they they destroy jobs. And the government says, well, we use that money to invest in the economy. BS, they're stealing our money. Now, being a libertarian, I'm I'm not your average everyday libertarian, because I kind of like the fair tax. You know, that's uh what do you call it? Uh the fair tax, where they only tax on stuff that you buy.
SPEAKER_03Usage. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh and uh and that way uh we don't tax income, we don't tax those employers when he when he hires somebody or he makes money. So I am in favor of the fair tax, but other than that, that's all of the taxes are theft. Well now you also talk about the H1B scam.
SPEAKER_04Yes.
SPEAKER_00Now in Myrtle Beach, we have a thing where we hire all kinds of foreigners to come and work our tourist industry during the season. So uh yes, those people are definitely taking jobs from the uh from the teenagers and young adults that live in the Myrtle Beach area.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's a it's a massive problem across all of South Carolina right now. And it's it's horrible. Where even in the last four or five years, it's been insane to witness like it used to be that even all the jobs at Walmart and Target and all the local tourist restaurants and tourist traps, they used to be all like high school students after working after school, or college students, or you know, young people that would have those jobs getting started in their careers. And now you've got 50-year-old Nigerians that don't speak English that are working these jobs, completely cutting out the youth from having any ability to work their way up whatsoever. So, yes, we absolutely have to eliminate all work visas. That way we actually have a future for our youth.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, if you're a design engineer or a programmer, computer programmer nowadays, it's getting more and more difficult to get a job because of the H 1B uh people that are coming in from other countries that are actually doing the job that you used to do, and they get paid what half as much as you do. Definitely.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and they're like slaves because the H1B and the work visa holders, they'll get deported if they get fired. And so they're basically slaves. They have to do everything the employer says, work 80-hour work weeks, and then they get paid less than American citizen because of the leverage that the business has. So that alone is a reason. That kind of slavery alone is a reason for employers who just care about getting the max out of people to hire foreign over hire American. And so we just have to cut the whole program.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's get back to the uh deportation and restoration idea again. Now we've all seen the great and wonderful things that DEI has done for the American workforce to make sure that only qualified people get the jobs. No, wrong, wrong. You one of your things is to ban DEI and critical race theory theory from all kinds of institutions. Can you talk about that?
SPEAKER_04Yes, I absolutely can. It's this this whole idea, this idea that, oh, we have to discriminate based on race or sex or sexual identity, and we have to promote people of different than white, different than straight, different than American, because that's fair. It's not fair. I believe ultimately that if we did have what they call a colorblind meritocracy, that life would be substantially better. So that if we actually just cared about the quality of your work, how well you could do the job, and ignored everything else, life would substantially improve across the board. And it's my opinion that the reason that they're trying to do these kind of things is that they're trying to tear down the institutions and actually rebuild them in sort of like this like communist idealism where they're trying to replace the most conservative demographic with the most liberal demographics that can push things further to the left. And uh something I've had a little bit of pushback from people in your crowd is that I also oppose having DEI in the private sector because you have companies like BlackRock, Blackstone, and Larry Fink, who, when they buy a controlling share of a company, they require them to put in a certain percentage of the workforce being like black women and foreigners, and they have to get rid of a lot of the people that have been there for years. And so it is a lot of these big investment companies that are helping to drive the problem in the private sector. And that's why I also say we have to ban it from the private sector as well.
SPEAKER_00A lot of what drives the privacy private sector um implementation of DEI are bank policies, where your your bank score is uh there's a certain acronym for that, uh that how much you support DEI.
SPEAKER_03Social credit score.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, your social credit score. So we got to get rid of that, definitely for sure. Now, this DEI thing is not new. When now I was in the Air Force back in, I guess I shouldn't tell you how old I am, but back in the 70s and 80s, I I applied for uh I was an enlisted person, and I applied for one of the officer candidate schools for the Navy. And I had graduated uh from the University of New Hampshire, top of my class, and uh I put in my application, and the person that was accepted, of course, was a minority. He got accepted, and us other guys that that graduated with much higher honors, we were passed over. Basically, it was DEI back in the Air Force, back in the military, back in the 70s and 80s. It was already being implemented. So definitely has to be removed from the military. So, of course, uh, but we really do have to expect the uh LGBT community because they've had a great influence on uh on uh American society, and uh we really should meet all their demands, and that's part of your platform, right? I am terrible, I know. So so tell us about your your view on uh the LGBT community.
SPEAKER_04My view is that I am sick and tired of seeing them parade around half naked in public acting like they're better than everyone else. I am tired of having it rubbed in everyone's faces that they're a special group. I they're not. They're okay, so you like to sleep with dudes and you're a dude. Why does that make it any better than anybody else? It doesn't. And it's also my opinion as a Christian, because I am a Christian, that it is not only a sin, but a perversion. And it should be opposed because you can't have children if you're one of the LGBT, you can't be able to pass on your genes, you cannot be fruitful and multiply. And so it's it's a it's a sort of a bit of a perversion against nature. And then even if it wasn't though, just their behavior is abhorrent and disgusting. The way that they go out and they prance around naked almost in public, wearing dildos in their foreheads in these parades. I I have seen like three pride parades in my lifetime, and I did not make any effort to see any of them. And uh just based on their behavior alone, I would oppose them.
SPEAKER_00But our our school systems do a great job of uh promoting the LGBT um influence of when you have trag queens at your school library reading books to 10 and 12 years old. That's that's a great way to uh increase the literacy of our uh of our young children. Okay, and then getting back to your uh your website there, you talked about removing foreign influence influence. Tell us about uh things like APEC.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it is it is my belief, and I think the belief of the vast majority of Americans now, that if you're trying to push for benefits for a foreign country, that you should not be able to lobby and fund politicians in America. If your entire organization is based around, let's send more money to the Middle East, let's send troops to the Middle East, let's work for everybody but America, then that goes against everything that is an American value. And so I would fully support banning AIPAC and making them register as a foreign agent because they should not be able to use the influence they have to change American policy.
SPEAKER_03Won't that get you in trouble with the MAGA crowd?
SPEAKER_04Well, it it really isn't me in trouble as much for the MAGA crowd. There is obviously a bit of pushback, but the thing that we have to do is I I support ending all foreign influence. I support banning all of this money being sent overseas. I support sending money to Ukraine, or I support stopping the money to Ukraine, I want to stop the money to Israel, and I want to stop the money to Iran, and I want to stop the money to China. I want to cut all foreign influence, not just to Israel, not just their influence, but everybody who is not American. So that the average person behind.
SPEAKER_03Like like Thomas Massey was was espousing. Exactly. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just about every member of the U.S. House accepts massive quantities of money from APEC for their election and re-election campaigns. The only person that would not accept money from APEC was Thomas Mac Massey. And if you look at the he just lost the primary, and if you look at the amount of money that APAC contributed to the other guy, I think it was like $10 million, one of the most expensive uh primary campaigns in in U.S. history. And here it was a foreign influence that determined the outcome of that primary.
SPEAKER_03And he lost by 10,000 votes, and just so happens, 10,000 of those votes that went to his opponent were male-in.
SPEAKER_00You mentioned about uh restoring the constitution. What do you mean by restoring the constitution? We've got a constitution, right?
SPEAKER_04The constitution is in shreds and tatters. The constitution has been ignored by both parties for decades. We hardly have a constitution anymore. I mean, just look at the Second Amendment about we have the all these different government agencies that are trying to regulate it out of existence. You got California tries to give people felony charges. If you have a magazine with 10 rounds in it instead of nine, you have now Virginia is passing all of these laws restricting gun ownership and red flag laws stating that if you ever one time felt a little bit sad and went to a psychologist, now that's justification for them to take your weapons away. And here's one that might be a little bit interesting. I think that banning felons from owning firearms is an is an absolute violation of the Second Amendment. It says shall not be infringed, not shall not be infringed unless you commit a crime. And so the Constitution and every amendment that we made in the Bill of Rights is just being trampled on on the regular. And so we need to revoke those agencies and put power back in the arms of the people.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm one of those crazy libertarians that even believes that teachers and school officials should be armed. If you if you're a if you're a nut nut case looking to go wipe out some children, what you want to go do is go look for gun-free zone signs. Because that is a target-rich environment. You can go in there and do whatever you want without suffering the consequences. So, right, we need to get back to understanding the Constitution and understand what the meaning of shall not be infringed means. And and not only that, but uh First Amendment, all hate hate crime, hate speech crimes should be taken off the books. I mean, that's what the First Amendment's all about. I mean, are we uh we separated from the UK because of Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and all these other people who engage in massive amounts of hate speech. Today they'd be in jail. And don't drive down the road with an envelope of $10,000 in your in your in your car when you go off somewhere else to buy a new car or a uh a classic Chevy or something like that. Because if the police turn uh pull you over for anything, they're gonna take your money. Because you gotta you've got that amount of money, you have to be a drug dealer. It's called civil assets forfeiture, and it's a violation of the Fourth Amendment. So, yeah, the Constitution is definitely in thread in I don't know, what do you call it? Threads, it's gotta be restored. You have to have elect people like Thomas Massey to Congress who realize and support the Constitution. Now, also, um, you talk about the revolution. What do you mean by revolution? Like the Ron Paul Revolution?
SPEAKER_04Well, the group like a lot of that, yeah. A lot of it is the fact that our country is being controlled by a combination of foreign interests, special interest groups, and international big businesses that are just trying to. Constantly rule over our country. And so a lot of the policies that I'm going to describe are, in effect, a revolution because it is about getting rid of the people that actually control our government and restoring it back to the hands of the people. So number one on that list is actually going after every single person who hurt children who are on the FC. Every single person that was involved with that could be rotting in federal prison and then putting death row and executed in my FD. That is one of the worst crimes that you could do. And what is the FC files where they're like torturing and brutalizing children in all these different ways? Horrible. And yet you go and you look at what the FC files are saying online what was released by the government, and they have the perpetrators' name censored. Every single one of them should be uncensored. We should have the full and total FC files completely uncensored, with the exception of some of the imagery, but all the perpetrators' faces should be available for people to see. And so the fact they're so locking free is to me uh an indictment of who actually runs the job.
SPEAKER_00I think the probability of us ever seeing the Epstein lists or the Epstein files is close to zero. Because it will definitely expose the Uni Party and the fact that there's really no difference between the current Republican Party and Democrat Party. Matter of fact, the um there has been a revolution f since uh 1913. And it's a progressive takeover of all American institutions. And uh that's one of the reasons that you know we really have to have uh good elections nowadays, fair elections, and we need we need election reform. And you've got some ideas on election reform, right?
SPEAKER_04Yes. On the state level, for example, there's a number of organizations pushing for a gold standard elections act, and then on the federal level, what matches it most closely is the Save Act, which I support both of those bills, the state and the federal level. And so we have to have voter ID. Every single person that goes in the vote has to have voter ID. But also, more than that, we have to have proof of people. You have to bring a birth certificate or a certificate of naturalization or something that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt you are an American citizen. And it can't be a driver's license because then California will issue people driver's licenses and then they can go and vote they're illegal. So you have to have it on the federal level.
SPEAKER_00In the vast amount of countries throughout the world, you have to have a voter ID to vote. Even Mexico, very, very strict on who can vote in Mexican elections. But yet in the United States, all you gotta do is apply for a motor vehicle uh license, you know, motor voter registration, and all of a sudden now you can vote. You don't even have to prove you're American citizen. So, yes, we definitely need the SAVE Act. We need to make sure that only American citizens can vote. And if you understand the congressional reapportionment process, you would understand why we have to mass deport all illegal aliens to make sure that they never get a chance to vote. Because all you're doing is increasing the number of possible representatives in a state who allows illegals to vote or allows illegals to register. Because the more people you have registering, the more uh representatives you get. So yeah, very, very important that we uh uh deport all illegal aliens. So now you also talk about uh the leftist judges. You know, Elena Kagan and uh has actually been voting with the majority here lately on some pretty good issues, but there is a there is a justice out there now called Brown, and she is far left, definitely far left. You gotta wonder if she even supports the Constitution. So what do you think about our our Supreme Court at the moment?
SPEAKER_04I think that it's a lot more pervasive than just the Supreme Court. It is on every level, the appeals courts, state courts, all of these different judges. Probably the one of the most egregious examples of this that I can think of in recent times is the fact that Venus Rutska's killer is walking the streets right now, as far as I understand, after brutally murdering someone when he was let go by a leftist judge. So it is way, way deeper than just a Supreme Court justice. Like this is on every level, on the state level, on the appeals court level, all the way up. You have all of these judges that care more about pushing DEI and more about protecting criminals than they do about the Constitution or about maintaining the rule of law, where they will rule against someone for the crime of being conservative, and then they'll free someone who's a criminal. And so that those people that are pushing for leftist policies over the constitution need to be impeached at every level, not just at the Supreme Court, but all the way down.
SPEAKER_00Sounds like a good idea. Uh, before we close, I'll I'll give you a few minutes to talk about uh your um your thoughts about stock trading in Congress and term limits, congressional term limits.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's part of the the same revolution, is the fact that a lot of these congressmen are collecting these huge payouts, this huge amount of money in insider trading, and then they stay in Congress forever, never actually doing anything and helping American people because they're making all this money and they're able to use that to keep winning re-election. And so it's my opinion we have to have full-on term limits. And for both Congress and the Senate, you can't just keep ruling forever. And then on top of that, something I didn't mention here actually is I think that we need to overturn the Supreme Court case of Citizens United. We have to make you can't just put unlimited money into an election, because that is exactly how someone like Thomas Massey gets unseated. Where they get unseated because of these tens and tens of millions of tax dollars coming from all over the world trying to destroy an actually good conflict. So we have to end this stock trade, we have to put in term limits, and we have to overturn Citizens United. And I think that that combination will put a lot more people like Thomas Massey in office.
SPEAKER_03And it might shock you to know that we get pushback from our good friends at the John Birch Society over the term limits debate. Um I I agree with you on that. Yeah, yeah. It's it's strange. Uh they flip-flop back and forth, but uh yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, plus it's crazy that as far as giving donations to candidates. Myself as an individual, my donation is like capped at like $25 at any one time. But yeah, corporations can get around that by forming numerous packs and donating thousands of dollars to candidates. Um I'm sorry, but where I'm from, that just ain't right. That's not right. So, uh Tyler, thanks for being a guest on our show today. Uh I'm sure that our our listening audience clearly knows now that you are not the typical big government tax and spend, special interest catering, Uniparty Republican who control most of South Carolina politics and our national politics. Many of you would even describe you as an ultra-wor-right winger. Others, however, would believe that your stands are definitely what is necessary to reverse our nation's slippery slide to socialism. I believe that the Republican Party needs massive reforms and a full-scale purge of the progressives who have infiltrated their ranks. It seems that you represent the new breed of Republican who can actually return our country on the path to limited government, individual and economic freedom, and our respect for the Constitution. Thanks for being a guest on Conversations with the Hoff today, Tyler. Been a good interview.
SPEAKER_04Thank you.
SPEAKER_00So our our next uh episode of Conversations with the Hoff is gonna have to do with the fact that our South Carolina legislature just ended their session on Thursday, May 14th. But is it's been called into executive session by the governor. So we're gonna talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly that has come out of the 2025-2026 legislative session. It should give our audience a good insight why us libertarians cringe every time our state legislature goes into session. Thanks for listening, and now a word from our glorious leader, the executive producer of Liberty Crack Media, Trip Detmering.
SPEAKER_03Well, thank you, Steve. And I don't know why you look at me when you say ugly. But anyway, uh, everybody, we want to thank Tyler Dykes. Uh, if you want to learn more about Tyler, go to vote TylerSc.com. You'll find that in our show notes. And on a humorous, I guess, side note is he just might get some of that LGBQ uh vote uh in there when they say Dykes for Congress. Anyway, we we might be able to leverage that for you, Tyler. Anyway, thank you again. If you want to learn more about our podcast, go to LibertyCrackmedia.com. Maybe if you uh have a few extra dollars, call us a bone and uh donate to our cause. And we have just been able to drop our episodes on YouTube. Um, just starting this last week. Join us for more of Conversations of the Hall.
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