The Puritans were an English religious sect seeking to 'purify' the Church of England. Failing in that endeavor, many of them emigrated to New England where they set out to build a "shining city on a hill" - a city so completely in tune with God's will that it would set an example for the world. Not quite, but almost a 'heaven' on earth.
They set about doing this by enforcing a strict moral code - one that has been artfully documented by Nathaniel Hawthorne among others. Yet the Puritan shining city was built in part on the slave trade in which they played a profitable role. While it's not fair to judge Puritans by today's standards, it seems that the Puritan's ferociously enforced moral code had some rather large gaps.
Like the Puritans, the modern Progressive seeks to implement rules, regulations and codes that manipulate human behavior to produce their version of a shining city on the hill. Like the Puritans the define anyone not living up to their definition of morality as being a 'bigot' or worse, a 'tea partier' (oh the irony). Yet like their slave trading precursors, their ferocious morality is strangely selective. Instead of black victims, the modern progressive has young ones, both aborted babies and bankrupted future generation.
One thing is clear: Progressives are completely convinced of their right, nay their duty to use the guns, shackles and steel boxes of the state to compel others to do what these Modern Puritans say is 'good' for them.
The Christian God says that pride is the greatest sin of all. And in their absolute certainty that they both know the answers and the methods to those answers Progs demonstrate that they are the true successors to the Puritan impulse in America.
Most Americans just want to be left alone. Tragically, that is something no Puritan or Prog will ever do.
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