So it may not be all that strange after all that New England became a bastion of liberalism. Abolitionism, the women's suffrage movement, 'alternative lifestyles', all sprang from Puritan soil.

I take it that this refers to the US version of New England. It might be of interest to some (but a radical thread drift) that South Australia was the first jurisdiction to give women the vote and that Paraguay was the site of an alternative lifestyle colony with personnel from eastern Oz; both date from the 1890s. The colonists were led by William Lane, who gets a mention in The Ballad of 1891 but, while the squattocracy regarded him as demonic, the songs don't.

And Art's The new found voices and vociferousness of the religious right came down pretty hard on occasion upon Tolkien, Harry Potter, Manly Wade Wellman's tales of John with his silver-strung guitar protecting him from all klinds of supernatural doings there.
They are still striving to get these images and tales "gone from American life."

reminds me that, while I noticed the loony right in the US waxing strange over JK Rowling, they were quite silent about CS Lewis' Narnia Chronicles.

Cheers, Rowan