After the Second Battle of Newbury in 1644, (a pivotal battle during the English Civil War), it became clear that some commanders in the Parliamentary Army which had been formed to preserve ancient English liberties against the encroachment of authoritarian power, were only fighting in a half-hearted way.

It was after this battle, that Oliver Cromwell and other great Puritan captains realized that the Charles I, King of England and Scotland, had been intentionally allowed to escape almost certain defeat.  Some Parliamentary soldiers in high places were not fighting for victory so much as a political compromise that would return Charles to the throne of England, with only modest revisions of his power status quo ante bellum.

Cromwell, much maligned by monarchial revisionists, was so incensed at the half-hearted war against Charles, that he proposed that he and all the officers in the Parliamentary Army resign, so that new leadership would prosecute the war with deadly earnest.

This was called The Self-denying Ordinance.  Accordingly, the English Parliament upon the advice of that great cavalry commander (who had never suffered defeat at the hand of the Monarchy) required all officers serving Parliament above the Rank of Colonel to resign from service in the army.  Oliver Cromwell also resigned his commission as he promised with no collusion or understanding that he would ever return to command. 

Cromwell loved his Puritan faith and his country more than power.

Events brought Cromwell back to lead the Parliamentary Army against the despotism of Charles I and because of that remarkable man, the world was given the first true taste of the supremacy of a democratic body rather than the prerogatives and unconstitutional authority of kings.

We are today, in this country, in a similar crisis, as was Parliament after the Second Battle of Newbury.  There are many who appear to serve the cause of liberty, but only work for political compromise with their enemy.

This cannot stand.

If we desire to bring forth victory over the descending hand of despotism in its modern incarnation of unconstitutional assertions of power, there must be an immediate transformation of the leaders of the resistance to that unlawful authority.  The desire to rule over other men is very old.  There is nothing unique to our age that has not been witnessed before.  History teaches us what must be done.

With the defection of Olympia Snowe in the face of the unlawful and far-reaching social reorganization of American society, we find there are many in high places in our Republic who seek only political compromise and do not fully comprehend the scope or reach of the conflict we are entered in.  The contest is not one of deficits and budgetary numbers.  It goes directly to the issues of Liberty and Constitutional governance.  The stakes are nothing less than the future of our Country, and any who fail to understand this, must be made to get out of the way of those who would fight in behalf of the rights of a free people.

The Republican Party which is truly the heir of that Old Parliamentary Army must turn out it leaders and find men and women who wish to fight the present Princes of Despotism with the ferocity and incorrigible tenacity of those who understand the consequence of failure.  The present leadership does not understand the gravity of the conflict.  As it is composed now, there are no great Cromwells to lead our army against the marching political armies of the Left.  There is a palpable crisis in leadership—and all those who fight for compromise rather than victory must to be turned out.  As with the half-hearted political generals prior to the construction of the New Model Army of Cromwell, there is presently no hope of victory.

Those who are fighting the prerogatives of men who do not understand Republican Democracy, must reform or perish.  They must demand fierce and obstinate resistance to the usurpation of would-be Autocrats and men who feel government is a tool of social reorganization, just as Charles I did. 

Boehner, McConnell and Snowe— and all others who cannot or will not fight— MUST GO!  They are just tired old marshals who cannot win the war as it is presently being fought. 

We need new wine in new bottles.