I'm a progressive, but also a pessimist and a misanthrope. My support for progressive policies is motivated by a firm belief that most people are crazy, evil, or just plain stupid and cannot be left to their own devices without ultimately screwing themselves and/or others. I don't see any contradiction between being a progressive and a control freak because "freedom" to me means freedom for them, not us ... since we have well-developed internal restraints, so while reducing external restraints wouldn't change our behaviors, it would change the behaviors of the people that we are logically most interested in controlling.

The irony is that while mental illness is regarded as grounds for leniency, I could argue that diminished faculties means they're more likely to require strong external controls and simple, powerful associations between undesirable behaviors and negative consequences. If only we really could "throw away" all the clinical psychopaths (as defined by patterns of behavior and/or measurable physical differences in brain structure): throw every banker, MBA, and Republican politician in jail.