But financial capital, political capital, and public attention are fungible and directly trade off. Want a space program at the top of a national political party platform? What are priorities are you going to give up fighting for to prioritize that?
I'm not sure that's true in any simple way.
As far as the government goes, it has a role, but this isn't the 60s. SpaceX has shown that a company can launch rockets. As long as there are people willing to work on the necessary problems and people willing to take the necessary risks, I see no reason (that isn't degenerate) why anyone would want to obstruct those efforts. It's not like making SpaceX illegal is going to somehow fix climate change or cure malaria.