The idea that politicians in the United States are puppeteered by special interest groups is nothing new. But at this point, its not clear what (if anything) the Republican party would actually stand for if those strings were cut. The party has become a shell that yells about principles while simply pushing the desires of organizations like the Heritage Foundation and enacting the whims of Donald Trump. While this has been becoming apparent for a while, the recent lies and hypocrisy coming out of Texas show just how deeply that rot has set in. Related Donald Trumps militarization of DC isnt about making streets safer. Its about fear. At Trumps prompting, Texas Republicans have redrawn congressional district lines for the next elections, something that is typically only done every ten years after a census. The move was explicitly made to gerrymander the state to provide Republicans with five additional seats in Congress so that the GOP can take firmer control of the House in 2026. Its a purely political move, aimed at consolidating power, not helping meet the needs of constituents.In response to this act by the Texas legislature, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is pushing to redraw congressional district lines in his state so that Democrats get five more seats to balance out Texas Republicans gerrymander. That plan still requires voter approval, which will be the subject of a special election in November. Republicans have been outraged by his actions, with California Republicans attempting to sue to prevent a vote on Californias redistricting from going ahead. That hypocrisy has been loud as California Republicans refuse to criticize their Texas counterparts, and Newsoms redistricting plan would only go into effect if Texas votes in favor of the gerrymandered redistricting. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today Earlier this month, when Texas Republicans wanted to vote on this redistricting, many Democratic Texas lawmakers responded by fleeing the state to keep the legislature from forming a quorum. Republicans and right-wing pundits have been irate about this tactic, suggesting that the Democrats were abdicating their responsibility and failing to represent their constituents.Those same concerns were not in evidence when, earlier this year, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) chose to recess Congress early. Johnson sent House members home rather than risk a vote on whether to make files associated with the investigation of child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein public. Again, its a move designed to preserve power by protecting Trump and other prominent political figures who might be mentioned in the files, not one aimed at protecting the interests of the people. When Texas Democrats did eventually return to the state, they were put under guard and required to get permission slips to leave the floor. It was under those conditions that the redistricting bill was passed. At the same time, Texas Republicans pushed through a sweeping anti-trans bathroom ban that will endanger the safety of both trans people and cis people who dont conform to subjective and traditional binary gender ideals.All of this was done during a special session that was supposedly held to provide time to address Texas recent floods, and Democrats were pushed to return for it through claims that they were failing to provide disaster relief by playing political games. Republicans notably didnt seem to value that disaster funding previously, when it could have actually prevented a disaster. Instead, they are now using the dead and grieving as a pawn to move another pawn (trans people) on their political chessboard.The Republicans, across the country but especially in Texas, have made it clear that they will use whatever means they can, not to push a moral agenda or a particular policy platform. Rather, their purpose is the advancement of the will of the hate groups and shadow organizations that support them and to prop up their would-be supreme leader. Prominent system theorist Stafford Beer stated that the purpose of a system is what it does. It doesnt matter what a system claims to be: if the output is different from that defined purpose and no one tries to change it, then that output is simply what the system is for. A tap delivers water, and thats its purpose. If it produces no water, then it is broken and needs to be fixed. If a tap that claims to produce water instead produces raw sewage and no one tries to change that, then the tap is now simply a raw sewage tap.So it is with the Republican Party. They have claimed to be fiscal conservatives, but every recent Republican government has ballooned the national deficit (the last Republican president to leave with a smaller deficit than he started with was Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961). They claim to be the party of family values, but they dont support the polices that would help families and are attempting to roll back child labor laws. They claim to support the working class, but help to break unions and strip down workers rights and wages. And, of course, they claim to support the military, but their trans ban will cost the armed forces millions, decrease military readiness, and force out people who have devoted their lives to the country, all in favor of pushing the ideals of the religious groups that fund them.Whatever the Republican Party once stood for, it is no more. A lot of the blame for that can be laid at Trumps door, but he was really just the final nail in the coffin. At some point, they became far more obsessed with just holding power rather than with doing anything constructive with it. And that left the door open for them to be co-opted by hate groups and the authors of policy platforms like Project 2025.The party is already fractured between the traditional Republicans and the Trumpers: without a unified purpose, its hard to see how they come back from this in the long term.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.