… Voters can’t evaluate what they don’t know. So voters reward the party of the president when it spends after a disaster. But they seem not to know or care at all what government does before disaster. …
How can ordinary people know what causes disaster or who is preventing it? These are intangible forces. The popularity of relief over preparedness derives from the fact that relief comes in a personal check. Voters like getting payments because the check in the mailbox is a concrete sign that government is doing something useful.
The CARES Act, which is sending $1,200 to most American adults, will likely net more votes for Mr. Trump, whose name will appear right on the check, than President Barack Obama received from the 2009 stimulus bill, which gave Americans tax breaks most didn’t realize they got. CONT.
Tali Mendelberg (Princeton), New York Times