Senator Tuberville is blocking all reassignments of generals in the US military, as a blackmail campaign demanding that the military stop helping servicewomen travel to get an abortion.

This is the Republican Way: take hostages, whatever you can grab, and threaten them in order to impose (1) your prejudices and (2) your power on the whole US.

The new speaker of the House is following the same approach, but he has a bigger hostage — the operation of most of the US government — and is making a bigger demand — to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Both are following the general principles of the Republican Party. That party has tried to rig elections for decades; the insurrectionist has led it to try to steal elections after the fact as well.