Politicians felt they had to (or seized the opportunity to?) enact a disproportionate response to 9/11 because it’s (politically ) better to fail by going too f

Politicians felt they had to (or seized the opportunity to?) enact a disproportionate response to 9/11 because it’s (politically ) better to fail by going too far than not going far enough. I suspect the same is true of covid, but how do we break the cycle? Is it innate in politics?