Erikstormtrooper said:

This is an interesting question. In the 1970s, people could easily see the evil in the Empire. Today, it doesn't register so much. Sad, really.

Why do you think this is?

I think, for myself, it's easy to say to a kid: The Empire is evil. Look, they're wearing black and shooting the good guys. My requirements from the story teller are pretty low. The storyteller says they're evil? Fine, they're evil. It's a pretty simple concept for high fantasy story telling.

But I think the onus on the prequels is to better explain what makes it evil? In the OT, you can say, "Trust us. They're evil. We've seen it." But when it's a new concept to the characters in the PT, it seems like you need to show people more that it's evil. And taxing trade routes is probably not the most effective way of doing that.