It is progressive when they oppose something, it is reactionary.
This simple dichotomy is an enormous pleasure for those individuals incapable of a more elaborate reasoning and who like to see their beliefs summarized in simple buzzwords, almost always partisan and rudimentary.
The progressives of old that also passed, in the USA, the first federal law to discourage the drug trade, Harrison Narcotics Tax Act, of 1914.
Progressive organizations supported, in 1882 and 1924, laws restricting the immigration of Chinese people. Several "progressive" unions were openly racist, nativist and nationalist. Even the second incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan, in the early 20th century, in addition to being openly racist, also advocated several progressive reforms. Margaret Sanger, sexologist, feminist, abortionist and heroine of American progressives, came to speak at one of the KKK events.
In purely political terms, progress is extremely subjective. For example, in Denmark, progressives have legalized prostitution; in Sweden, progressives made it illegal. Can they both be progressive? In economic, scientific and technological terms, progress definitely exists. Or at least you can imagine it exists. However, some very progressive people believe that the Luddites who broke machines represented a "heroic resistance movement for the rights of the working class". That is, destroying technology equals progress.
