It's not always true that progressives are for more government power. See the death penalty for example. It's pretty much the ultimate power a government could have, and who advocates for it? It's not progressives I believe.
You think the death penalty is an exercise of ultimate power? It’s more an exercise of vengeance.
The ultimate exercise of government power is keeping someone locked in a tiny cell for the rest of their life where their bed is next to their toilet and you make them beg a faceless bureaucracy that has no accountability annually for some form of clemency via parole, all while the world and their family moves on without them.
