As anyone familiar with my web site will appreciate, my ideological identification is with the Virginia settlements, with the values of the Virginia gentry--Washington, Jefferson, Madison, etc.. These, even as your essay would suggest, represent a more tolerant, freer system of values.
But having said that, I must suggest to you, also, that the significance of the Puritans--who came in 1620, not 1630--was not in showing what to avoid. They were a part of the coming together of diverse societies, that found a common American purpose in 1776, defined further in the Constitution in 1787. Their values have contributed to the whole, and under the Federal umbrella, there is a place for their States as there is for the rest of us.
Unfortunately, there was a metamorphosis during the two generations after the Revolution, and the former Puritans, running their own affairs, became intolerant Leftwing zealots trying to build an egalitarian social heaven on earth, by seeking to impose their new secular vision on everybody else. That was the genesis of Modern "Liberalism" in America, and I for one would much have preferred to see them remain a people who outlawed Christmas, rapped their own people in the head, if they fell asleep during their interminable Church services--even hanged a few Witches--rather than have to deal with the mischief they stirred up after 1840.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site