The fact that many middle-class and lower-middle-class citizens who did not stand to benefit from president george w. bush's tax cuts seemed to favor them is an example of

I think it would be an example of : "spiral of silence"

Spiral of silence is a fear that a specific social group have upon the possibility of being excluded by another group of people.

In this case, many people form lower class income believed that the Bush's tax cuts will only benefit the one on upper class income.