Tyner censure hypocritical, overlooks his attributes

Dear Editor: Censuring Dutchess County Legislator Joel Tyner over his remarks surrounding curtailment of Poughkeepsie bus service is about as cynical, hypocritical and disingenuous as local politics gets.

Joel has been a tireless advocate for the environment, the poor, the dispossessed and the middle class for decades. The Bernie Sanders or Ralph Nader of the Hudson Valley has earned the ire of Republicans and corporate Democrats alike.

Tyner’s Real Majority Project has organized rallies, forums, vigils and radio shows opposing the costly county jail expansion, utility rate hikes, high voltage power lines, pipelines, trash incinerators, fracking, nuclear power, GMOs, oil wars and the privatization of vital public services. Tyner, D-Clinton, supports single-payer healthcare, recycling, zero waste, solar energy programs, homeless shelters, youth programs and more.

These issues have two things in common: They are generally supported by a majority, and they threaten the power and profits of the uber-rich, 20 of whom own as much as the bottom 50 percent nationally. Billionaires buy politicians of both parties who maintain that inequality.

Mussolini defined “fascism” as “corporatism,” the melding of political and corporate power. By that metric, we are well on the way, and Tyner’s use of the term was highly appropriate.

And just how does a reference to “following orders like the Germans...” make Joel, who has been subjected to Republican name calling, and whose family is partly Jewish, anti-Semitic? Intellectual dishonesty approaching Trumpian levels! Censure the system, not one of our few noncorrupt politicians.

Edmund Haffmans, Accord