Political reforms get mixed reviews, but generally score better with high-information voters.

House Democrats recently passed HR1, a sweeping bill to improve both oversight in American government and the way elections are run in the United States, an effort Navigator examined in January. This month, Navigator examined a suite of new proposals that go beyond HR1: bigger ideas geared at bolder electoral and political reforms.

These ideas, which have gotten some oxygen at the early stages of the Democratic presidential primary process, had been off the map of mainstream political conversation. And, while some of these proposals examined may be familiar to close observers of American politics, the latest survey makes clear considerable education is necessary and could lead to stronger support for many of the policies in question.

Navigator asked two questions about each policy in the survey: awareness and support. Overall awareness of the policies was low. The most familiar policy is the abolition of the Electoral College for presidential elections, which 55% say they have heard “some” or “a lot” about. Almost half (47%) had also heard about the restoration of voting rights to individuals with past felony convictions. Beyond that, none of the other eight policies are well-known by more than a third of the country (33% for Puerto Rican statehood). Only 22% of respondents had heard a lot or some about five or more policies from the list.

However, most of the policies are popular despite the lack of awareness. Of the 12 policies tested, eight receive positive net support overall. And all but four policies are especially popular among the 22% of respondents who have heard about five policies or more – a group that is slightly better educated (44% have a college degree, compared to 37% overall), but politically similar (36% liberal compared to 30% overall) to the public at large.

Getting a critical mass of voters into the “high-information” category with regard to political reforms won’t be easy. But this edition of Navigator also demonstrates that even small amounts of context – down to a few words, in some cases – can have a big impact.

Half of respondents were shown a description of each policy with no detail (Split A), and half were shown a description with greater detail (Split B). The findings show that, while connecting some of the policies to American values like representation or appreciation for the military will increase support, getting into the weeds can sometimes do more harm than good.

Underlining the importance of education with issues like statehood, only 39% of Americans correctly stated Washington, D.C. does not already have full representation in Congress, 29% believe they are represented; 33% don’t know.

Supporters of statehood in Washington, D.C. should emphasize these voters lack full representation and already pay federal taxes.

Two-thirds (66%) overall found a pro-statehood argument including the fact that these citizens pay taxes more persuasive than a conservative argument calling it a Democratic “power grab” – 66% of independents and even 38% of Republicans sided with D.C. residents when it is framed this way. The taxation argument is much more convincing than arguing D.C. residents have “been waiting over 200 years to have a political voice in the federal government.”

The reform proposals discussed so far affect different parts of America’s democratic machinery: courts, presidential elections, Congress, and the composition of the United States itself. After years of declining public confidence in the government, Washington reformers aim to rebuild trust by making government more representative and accountable.

But “democracy reform” is not the most beneficial language for its advocates. Instead, framing the efforts as “political reform” has several advantages:

Salience: Asked which is more important in a head-to-head, “political reform” decisively beats “democracy reform” (by 76% to 24%).”

Accuracy: Given a choice between the three, Americans perceive these proposals as reforming “government” (45%) or “politics” (33%) more than “democracy” (21%).

Connotation: Americans are least likely to see “Reforming politics” through an ideological lens (52% say it is neither a liberal nor a conservative idea; 30% say liberal and 18% say conservative) of the alternatives tested. “Reforming democracy” in particular is perceived as a liberal idea rather than a conservative one by 38% to 16% (45% say it is neither).

When arguing in favor of some more specific policies, such as increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court or abolishing the filibuster rule in the Senate, progressive arguments are more persuasive when they focus on non-partisan objectives: better representation, less gridlock, and more bipartisanship.

It’s not just Republicans who prefer non-partisan arguments – Democrats, too, are more sympathetic to pro-reform arguments when the emphasis is fairness rather than progressive achievement. For example, when arguing for filibuster reform, the case isn’t that it will allow Democrats to enact their agenda. The case is that it will make sure Congress can get things done and stop gridlock.

Americans don’t see the benefits of the Republican tax law in their own returns. Progressives should continue reminding voters about the harm caused by the law.

When Navigator conducted its survey over the first week of April, most (71%) of respondents had done their taxes, ahead of the April 15th deadline – marking the first tax filing season after the full implementation of the 2017 Republican tax law. Progressives have consistently argued the law was a giveaway to the rich at the expense of working and middle class people, and now most Americans are seeing its full impact on their paychecks and tax returns.

The verdict on the tax law: a decisive thumbs down. In fact, net support for the bill fell to a new low in Navigator’s tracking to -12 (33% support, 45% oppose). The share who say their personal finances
have improved due to the bill is flat, at 19% – identical to our January Navigator survey – while the share who say it has made their finances worse has gone up by 10 points since February. Meanwhile, by 30% to 19%, those who have filed so far say they paid more than expected this year, rather than less (48% say it matched expectations). Support for the bill has also declined most among middle-income Americans (making $50,000 to $100,000 in household income), who were split on the bill two months ago (41%-39%) but now divide 35% to 45% against.

The bottom line: Americans just don’t see the benefit of this bill for their own lives and they’ve figured out Trump is focused on helping the wealthy instead of the middle class.

The argument for progressives: The wealthy are getting special treatment in the Trump economy.

Public confidence in Trump’s ability to handle taxes has also slumped. Democrats have a 12-point lead on the issue this month (45% to 33%), their biggest yet in Navigator’s tracking thus far. The shift is driven in part by movement among independents, who split 23% to 22% for Democrats last month but 37% to 23% this month.

By another metric Navigator has tracked for months, Americans are more likely to say Donald Trump favors the wealthy over the working and middle class by a 24-point margin, 62% to 38%. Here, independents split decisively against the president, with a 36-point lead (68% to 32%) for “puts wealthy people first.”

Inconclusive, not exonerated – the conservative talking point on “exoneration” failed to break through.

The president trumpeted Attorney General William Barr’s 4-page “summary” of the recently completed Special Counsel report as an “exoneration,” but Americans did not buy it.

Americans are very aware of the completion of the Special Counsel investigation, submitted by Robert Mueller to the Department of Justice in late March. Nearly every respondent polled (97%) had heard at least a little about the end of the investigation, including 41% who had heard a lot. The survey was conducted April 1-7, roughly a week after Barr went public on March 25.

But the share who accept the Trump administration narrative that the yet-to- be-released full report conclusively “exonerates” the president of wrongdoing is much smaller: just 30%. Most Americans either believe the report was inconclusive (45%) or don’t know enough to say (18%). Even among self-identified Republicans, nearly four in ten (38%) do not agree that Trump has been exonerated.

With so many Americans ready to “wait and see,” there is an opening for progressives to continue to make the case for continued scrutiny from Congress.

Immediately following Democrats’ takeover of the House, Americans split evenly over the risks of overreach by congressional investigators versus the risks of lax oversight. Several months later, the public is more concerned the president and his associates will get away with wrongdoing. Views have shifted among independents, who leaned toward concern about overreach in December (36% to 32%) but now worry more about lax oversight by a margin of 11 points (46% to 35%).

Supporters of congressional investigators should respond to Trump’s complaints about exoneration (or wasted time and money) by emphasizing that Mueller’s work was only one piece of a larger puzzle. Potential “collusion” and “obstruction” are not the president’s only problems.