In response to Donald Smith’s rant against fictitious conservatives in the May 30 Bellevue Reporter, a desire for small government is not about the wholesale removal of public services.

In Bellevue, our social concerns are presided over by one, or usually a combination of five tiers of government, city, county, regional, state and federal, each with their own offices, car parks, computers and fair share of unaccountable, unelected and useless members of staff. Left- or right-winger, who doesn’t want to see reform of this self-multiplying chaff.

Pitting one extreme view against its opposite does nothing for balanced politics. People are Republican or Democrat on one day alone … Election Day. The rest of the time there are simply issues to solve.

Lyndon Heywood, Bellevue