The seventeenth century was an interesting time for England, because the government started trying new things. At this point, Henry VIII had already messed things up, by saying he was Catholic, but he didn’t want to act Catholic so he was going to ignore the Pope and do what he wanted like a Protestant would. This caused chaos for generations, no one knew what to do, every other leader was of a different denomination and kept radically changing things.
After Elizabeth I, came her cousin’s son Charles I of England. England didn’t like that guy, so they chopped his head off, after this came Oliver Cromwell, who everyone also hated, after his seven year reign, so they put Charles II, Charles I’s son back on the throne. This was a long little experiment caused by changing culture and little knowledge of how tolerant people should be of the different denominations.
Oliver Cromwell, replaced Charles I, because he was not to be a king, the idea was for him to be different from the monarchy to appeal to the people. So he called himself Lord Protector and used way more force than Charles I ever did to eliminate religious tolerance as much as possible.
Oliver Cromwell was a puritan, so he had everyone act as though they had puritan values, such as looking as modest and humble as possible, and never partaking in frivolous activity. Some of his laws included no bright colors in clothes, or extravagant gowns, ladies could not wear makeup, and the arts as a whole were removed from the culture. Little to no music, no art in church or elsewhere, no theater, and the tradition to feast and party at Christmas time was also removed, there was virtually no Christmas. Oliver Cromwell was a tyrant, who felt he had best control over England because he was not technically a king. The same could be said for Presidents today.
In the beginning, George Washington was skilled at staying within the parameters of the law, and listening and appealing to the people. Oliver Cromwell was originally on board with the idea of being less tyrannical than a king, and not getting a title. But over time, it was easy for the American Government to destroy businesses across States on the whim of a president during covid, just as Oliver Cromwell found it easy to destroy artistic industries throughout England.
The original idea in both cases was to distribute power among multiple people so no one person has too much power, including the person with a title. In theory that is all fine and good, but in practice people naturally test the line as much as they can, sometimes that line gets gradually tested until people don’t notice the tyranny they were brought up with, or that line is rapidly erased leaving only angry people.
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