Many vulnerable U.S. citizens hate big government and vote against their own economic interests. Explanations for why this is so must take into account the often simultaneous desires of these citizens for small government in the economic domain and more muscular government intervention in the moral or cultural domain. One explanation for what appears to be a contradiction in the ideology of purportedly small-state conservatives is that Christian conservative elites prime the emotions and identifications associated with different orientations toward economic and moral issues.