BIRTH OF THE BLUES: Walter Russell Mead on Obama, Boston, and the Puritan roots of the American liberal vision.

For the Puritans, the construction of a godly society was the first order of business. The state was not the enemy of liberty; the state was society’s moral agent. . . . New England government was charged with the creation of a moral society. There was nothing that was not its business: how much did a master pay his apprentices? Who celebrated Christmas? Who was cheating on his or her spouse? The duty of government was to make society live right; the university, the pulpit, the newspaper — these were to be the allies of government in the struggle for good.

From Cotton Mather to JournoList. I had some related thoughts here.