Imaginary friend(s).

The central illusion of Progressives is that an all-powerful central state will not become a self-serving expansive empire, but will be content to wield its vast powers to protect its favored cartels/monopolies and distribute money skimmed from the citizenry to Progressive constituencies such as public unions, [and those wanting free] healthcare and education.

This is an absurd fantasy.^[1]

I read a comment somewhere on the web (SOTW) that made fun of Christians for believing they have imaginary friends interested in their earthly welfare and in saving them from the fires of Hell. Other religions were viewed in the same light by this gentleman but I don't remember which ones offhand. The commenter clearly thought that he as a secular person was free of such pathetic, irrational beliefs. Bill Maher, too, likes to talk about fools who believe in talking snakes and just as clearly considers himself to have graduated to a higher plane of existence inhabited by wise progressive secularists like himself.

What secularists (often) and progressives (always) do believe in is the imaginary wise persons in the legislature, the courts, and the bureaucracies who conducts themselves with one eye firmly fixed on the highest ideals of "good government" treating all citizens promptly, equally, and fairly guided at every turn by the dictates of reason, honesty, selflessness, law, and restraint. This imaginary being

Bureaucrat.

is far more real to secularists and progressives (communists, socialists, liberals, and statists) than any divine and arguably invisible Being thought to govern the affairs of men. Leftists (e.g., the majority of the Republican Party) routinely hand over enormous amounts of power to flesh and blood government officials heedless of the danger in doing so as can be deduced from direct experience and history. Necessarily leftists believe in a transformation of human capabilities every bit as miraculous as the transformation of the Eucharist, a phenomenon I have highlighted earlier.

Given the track record of the religious and the secular in our times, I'd sooner believe in a talking snake than in benign, efficient, wise government. Unfortunately, the latter is the dominant paradigm of our times.

But not for long:

As a society, our debt levels are completely and totally out of control. Our financial system has been transformed into the largest casino on the entire planet and our big banks are behaving even more recklessly than they did just before the last financial crisis. We continue to see thousands of businesses and millions of jobs get shipped out of the United States, and the middle class is being absolutely eviscerated. Due to the lack of decent jobs, poverty is absolutely exploding. Government dependence is at an all-time high and crime is rising. Evidence of social and moral decay is seemingly everywhere, and our government appears to be going insane. If we are going to have any hope of solving these problems, the American people need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and finally admit how bad things have actually become. If we all just blindly have faith that "everything is going to be okay", the consequences of decades of incredibly foolish decisions are going to absolutely blindside us and we will be absolutely devastated by the great crisis that is rapidly approaching. The United States is in a massive amount of trouble, and it is time that we all started facing the truth.^[2] 

Notes
^[1] "Pimping the Empire, Progressive-Style." By Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds, 1/7/14.
^[2] "83 Numbers From 2013 That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe." By Michael Snyder, Economic Collapse Blog, 12/16/13.