Once a large majority of Americans came to believe that the federal government was uninspiring or incompetent or corrupt or evil – as they rapidly had over the previous decade [1960s] – it was going to be a lot easier for the economic right to persuade people that regulating big business and taxing the rich were just plain wrong. Those people wouldn’t necessarily become crusaders for free enterprise, but if they started focusing more of their resentment and anger of the federal government, the smart right-wingers knew, it could have the same effect.