As many readers know, Texas Leftist is in the midst of a very interesting interview process. I have submitted Candidate Questionnaires (on here as the TLCQ) to candidates on Houston’s November ballot. Thankfully, the process is going well, and I must say it’s quite fascinating to read the myriad of answers given by the candidates.

Houston municipal elections are also non-partisan, and I wanted to garner some information about the political views of each candidate. But rather than ask them outright what party they belong to, I decided to ask candidates to share why government is important. In my opinion, the answer to this question can reveal a deeper truth than a particular party affiliation. It lets readers know what motivates this person to devote so much time, energy and money into running for public office.

Given what’s going on in Washington right now, I keep trying to also interpolate the answer to this question from someone like Texas Senator Ted Cruz or Texas Congressman Louis Gohmert. Judging by their actions, one can only conclude that their answer would go something like this…

Government is important to me because it gives me something to screw up. It is a vehicle by which I make lots of money and garner lots of national attention. When not serving me with self-promotion, government is wasteful spending aimed at society’s losers.

It’s no coincidence that one might associate this view with the Republican Party writ large. Their long-held plan to shut down the government has finally been realized. Most Republicans did not go to Washington to govern this country. They went to ruin it, and beat Obama. Of course GOP leaders will turn right around and say “no… this shutdown was caused by Harry Reid and the President. We didn’t want this.” They’ve said that or something similar a bunch over the last few days, and they’ve been lying.

I know everyone doesn’t watch the Rachel Maddow show, but I sincerely hope that you take a few minutes to watch this clip. She goes back and traces every move by the House GOP caucus, and proves that they have wanted a government shutdown since 2010, and would stop at nothing to get it. Democrats have been the ones held hostage to each and every of their growing list of demands. This is worth watching.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy