[iudqnolq]

This is a common conception, but I think it's totally wrong. I think it's misguided to try and model human behavior by assuming people have ethical axioms and then proceed logically from there.

Plenty of people express skepticism of the scope of government power in the abstract. Anecdotally they almost all behave inconsistently when things get a little more concrete.

I tend to assume that when people say "reduce government power" they mean "the government should keep helping me, and stop helping others". So far that's nearly always been right.

For example many Republicans have (correctly) condemned the treatment of the Jan 6 traitors by the system. They say it's wrong for someone to have to live in a cell flooded with raw sewage, yet they don't care their local jail treats ordinary people similarly.

A related example is abortion. Traditionally Republicans said they wanted to delegate abortion regulation to states. After they won that some started to say the Federal Government should ban abortion. Very very few Republicans condemned that.

I've focused on right-wing examples because their motivated reasoning has had more significant impact recently in this area. But the left exhibits similar flaws. Plenty of "in this house we believe" families that call the cops on people peacefully minding their own business because they felt uncomfortable.