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The euphoria that Democrats felt in defeating Donald TrumpDonald TrumpDOJ to seek resignations of most Trump-appointed US attorneys: report Trump attorney withdraws request to not hold impeachment trial on Saturday Kinzinger in op-ed calls on GOP senators to convict Trump in impeachment trial MORE was significantly tempered by their surprising loss of House seats and a failure on election night to take back the Senate. As is often the case in politics, this disappointment provoked finger-pointing by both progressives and moderates. Rep. Abigail SpanbergerAbigail Davis SpanbergerWhat I learned in 19 weeks of working with progressive Democrats The Memo: Ohio Dem says many in party 'can't understand' working-class concerns Hillicon Valley: Intelligence agency gathers US smartphone location data without warrants, memo says | Democrats seek answers on impact of Russian hack on DOJ, courts | Airbnb offers Biden administration help with vaccine distribution MORE (D-Va.), who narrowly escaped defeat, started things off by saying, We need to not ever use the word socialist or socialism ever again. We lost good members because of that.

Other moderates, and many political analysts, said the term defund the police was responsible for some losses or narrow victories. They argued that Republicans successfully cast the most vulnerable Democrats as socialists and tied them to liberal ideas such as Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and cutting police budgets. Said Rep. Kurt SchraderWalter (Kurt) Kurt SchraderWhat I learned in 19 weeks of working with progressive Democrats Why are millions still flowing into the presidential inauguration? Democrats poised to impeach Trump again MORE (D-Ore.): Democrats messaging is terrible. When the far-left gets all the media attention, voters get scared.

The partys progressive wing didnt take this blame lying down, saying their message won the election because it stimulated record turnout among minority and young voters. Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats, said, We need a Democratic Party that stands for something more than being anti-Trump.

Whos right? Both sides are. There is no doubt that calls to defund the police hurt Democrats badly. The Biden campaign realized that. In a speech in Pittsburgh, Joe BidenJoe BidenButtigieg: Officials consider negative COVID-19 test requirement on domestic flights DOJ to seek resignations of most Trump-appointed US attorneys: report Kinzinger in op-ed calls on GOP senators to convict Trump in impeachment trial MORE said he is actually for additional funding for police training. The speech helped the campaign put together an effective TV ad that played heavily for 10 days. But, down the stretch, Republican messaging pounded the idea that defunding the police would reduce police presence and make communities less safe. Republican messaging also was effective in scaring people about socialism. For swing voters, that can be an effective tactic.

Democratic messaging did not effectively rebut this charge. Why not have an ad quoting Republicans in 1935 trying to scare voters by calling Social Security a socialist program and quoting Republicans in 1965 calling Medicare a socialist program? Social Security and Medicare are probably the governments two most popular programs and voters would get the message that Republicans were trying to needlessly scare them.

Progressives are right when they say that the espousal of bold programs helped to bring out the partys growing base of minority and young voters. They can point to Georgia, where high turnout among minority and young voters in Januarys special elections finally gave Democrats control of the Senate again.

Yet even improving messaging wont solve all of the Democratic Partys problems. Is it possible to stop infighting before it tears us apart and robs us of the opportunity to take advantage of the implosion of the Republican Party? I believe it is, if both wings of the party would simply realize they have the same goals and aspirations for the American people: health care coverage for all; a cleaner/safer environment; a $15 an hour minimum wage; a reduction in income inequality; a fairer, more effective justice system; and ensuring every Americans right to vote.

The difference between the partys two wings lies in how to achieve those aspirations. But the best way to resolve these differences is for both sides to find compromises, rather than insisting on ideological purity.

Last August, I received a call from Meredith Rose Burak, a member of the board of The Sanders Institute, a think tank started by the family of Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersCBO says minimum wage would increase deficit B The Hill's Morning Report - Presented by TikTok - Senate trial of Trump to dominate this week This week: Senate starts Trump trial as Democrats draft coronavirus bill MORE (I-Vt.). She was spearheading an initiative to help Democrats take back the Senate, focusing on races where a moderate Democrat had prevailed in the primary over a progressive. I agreed to help raise money to directly communicate with young Sanders supporters who otherwise wouldnt have been engaged. For 19 weeks I was immersed in Sanders world. Now, I was an avid Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhat I learned in 19 weeks of working with progressive Democrats Poll: Biden notches higher approval rating in Texas than Gov. Abbott In Marjorie Taylor Greene, a glimpse of the future MORE supporter in 2016 and with Joe Biden from the day he announced, but I have always admired Sanders passion and honesty. I began to see the value of fighting for our highest aspirations and not settling if there is a chance to get it all.

A typical example of this is raising the minimum wage. As Pennsylvanias governor, I felt great when I signed a bill raising the states minimum wage by $2 an hour, knowing that I was giving over 400,000 Pennsylvanians a $4,000 yearly raise and putting more spendable income into our regional economy. Although a $15 minimum wage is certainly fair, I thought we had no chance of virtually doubling the federal minimum in one piece of legislation. But the pandemic hit and Ms. Burak reminded me that many of our essential workers are paid far less than $15 an hour for risking their lives while working. She persuaded me that my position was wrong. We shouldnt try to reach $15 an hour with wage bumps every two years when $15 is barely livable for a family of one parent and two children. It is right, and doable.

We argued over the Green New Deal. I called it impractical, and she said that such a stance shuts down any discussion and undermines the bills purpose. We cannot move forward, as a party or as a nation, by drawing a line in the sand and rejecting other ideas. Our country calls for bold ideas, and we grow stronger through discussing them. We are a nation that grew strong on ideas that once were considered impractical.

What I learned from discussing our positions on various issues is that the Democratic Party needs both wings to talk to each other, to discuss differing ideas, so that each side understands the other and we can move forward on areas where we agree and continue to argue for positions where we still differ. If we communicate, were likely to find some merit in what each is saying.

We also need to convince both wings of the party that they cannot insist on 100 percent purity for our candidates. Our party must remain a big tent. In 2006, when Republican Sen. Rick Santorum was running for reelection, he was a top-heavy favorite to win. Polls showed that two strongly pro-choice Democrats had no chance of beating him. A few Democratic leaders asked me to convince these potential candidates not to run so that Bob CaseyRobert (Bob) Patrick CaseyWhat I learned in 19 weeks of working with progressive Democrats OVERNIGHT ENERGY:DOJ to let companies pay for environmental projects again to reduce fines | House Democrats reintroduce green energy tax package Republican 2024 hopefuls draw early battle lines for post-Trump era MORE, a pro-life Catholic, could run against Santorum with a clear shot of winning. I am strongly pro-choice, but taking back the Senate and electing a senator with whom I agree on most issues was more important to me. Casey went on to defeat Santorum and has been a great advocate for progressive positions. Is he still pro-life? Yes, but as he has explained, he has done things to help women and children before and after birth.

So, we can do this, Democrats. Think of our goals and realize that getting 70 percent of a goal is better than nothing. Maybe we should get The Squad and our Blue Dogs to work together on an important project for 19 weeks. They might just find out that their differences arent as significant as they thought. In politics, you cant always get what you want, but you just might get what America needs.

Edward G. Rendell was the 45th governor of Pennsylvania. He is a former mayor of Philadelphia and former district attorney in that city. He served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 presidential election. Follow him on Twitter @GovEdRendell.

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What I learned in 19 weeks of working with progressive Democrats | TheHill - The Hill

By TCR Staff | February 8, 2021

A number of progressives appear to be heading toward a showdown with President Joe Biden over a new commission that will study changes to the Supreme Court, underscoring the tricky politics at play for an administration that is aiming for bipartisanship but also hoping to retain support from the left flank, reports USA Today. Biden proposed the commission in October to head off a push by liberals to expand the number of justices on the nine-member court an effort prompted by the quick confirmation of Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett days before the Nov. 3 election. Her narrow approval gave conservatives a 6-3 advantage, the most lopsided split since the 1930s. Several progressives said they remain hopeful about the commissions work but are also sounding early alarms over its composition and timeline. The panel itself was widely seen as a way for Biden to punt on a proposal that has been politically poisonous since President D. Franklin Roosevelts failed attempt to pack the court in his second term.

The pressure for some kind of overhaul has not come exclusively from left-leaning groups. Eric Holder, who served as attorney general under Obama, said during a recent Brookings Institution event that federal courts badly need reforms and asserted that Democrats are uncomfortable with using their power in a way that Republicans have not been. Expanding the size of the Supreme Court wont win Republican support and it has already made some centrist Democrats squeamish. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., a key swing vote, said in October he opposes adding justices.

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Progressives and Biden Square Off on Supreme Court Expansion - Crime Report

The progressive political action committee No Excuses has started a campaign to try to oust conservative U.S. Senate Democrats Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and Krysten Sinema, of Arizona.

Politico reports the PAC is starting to search for candidates to challenge incumbent Democrats they say are standing in the way of ambitious action to end the coronavirus pandemic and revive the economy.

In an email to supporters, the PAC says, Help us find the next AOC to replace Manchin and Sinema.

I will leave it up to the political wags in the Grand Canyon State to weigh in on the chances of a successful primary against Sinema, but it is a safe bet in the Mountain State that Manchin cannot be taken out in a Democratic Party primary when he is up for reelection in 2024.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represents the 14th Congressional District of New York, an urban district of New York City where 40% of the residents are immigrants. The district voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden over Donald Trump, some areas by as much as 70 or 80 points.

That is a long way from West Virginia, but it did get me thinking about where progressive Democrats are in our state based on the last election.

The New York Times put together an interactive map with 2020 presidential election results in 1,922 of the 3,143 counties in 42 states. It includes a specific breakdown of counties, and even voting precincts, in West Virginia.

Bidens limited success in West Virginia was almost exclusively in the states few urban areas. He dominated Charlestons West Side, where he received 85% of the vote in one precinct. Biden beat Trump by 64 points in Institute and 58 points in the neighborhoods around the state Capitol Complex.

Bidens best performance in Huntington was the district between Hal Greer Boulevard and 20th street, where nine out of 10 voters supported him.

The map shows Beckleys voting precincts were divided between Trump and Biden, although Biden did get 93% of the vote in one precinct. Biden won by 67 points in a downtown Bluefield precinct.

One exception to the urban trend was in Southern West Virginia. Trump won McDowell County, but Biden got more votes in a couple of precincts along U.S. 52 between Welch and the Mercer County line.

Wood County is Republican and, there, Biden managed to win the downtown only by a couple of votes. In the Northern Panhandle, Biden carried downtown Wheeling and one precinct in Edgewood.

Biden had some success in the I-79 Corridor in north-central West Virginia. He carried Morgantown, winning eight of the citys precincts by an average of 38 points. He also picked up a few precincts in Fairmont.

Biden split with Trump in Martinsburg. In Shepherdstown, Biden outdistanced Trump 87% to 11%. Biden got 77% of the vote in Harpers Ferry, but he won just narrowly in Charles Town. Biden also won two precincts in Elkins and one in the Canaan Valley of Tucker County.

Even though Biden outperformed Trump significantly in many of the urban areas of the state, Trump still won statewide by 39 points. The New York Times map shows where the progressives are in West Virginia they are the sources of the blue geysers in an otherwise red state.

However, the map also shows there simply are not enough of them to make a significant political impact statewide, and clearly not enough for a progressive Democrat to take out Joe Manchin.

Hoppy Kercheval is the host of Talkline, on MetroNews.

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Hoppy Kercheval: Progressive Dems will never oust Manchin (Opinion) - Charleston Gazette-Mail

President Biden likes to talk about healing and unity, but he also keeps pledging to prioritize the supposed interests of certain favored minority groups. When is he going to realize that his goals of racial unification and racial favoritism are at cross-purposes?

Last week Mr. Biden signed an executive order on racial equity. He said that George Floyds death last summer marked a turning point in this countrys attitude toward racial justice and is forcing us to confront systemic racism and white supremacy. He added that this nation and this government need to change their whole approach to the issue of racial equity and make it not just an issue for any one department. It has to be the business of the whole government.

Nothing quickens the pulse of progressives like talk of systemic racism and white supremacy, so its hard to know if Mr. Biden is just telling leftists what they want to hear. But if its more than thatif the president is serious about focusing on equal outcomes instead of equal opportunitiesthen heaven help us. Milton Friedman said the society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither, while the society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both. Of course, Friedman had a constrained view of the governments capabilities that isnt shared by very many Democrats today. For them, good intentions are what matter most.

The political left has long used racism as an all-purpose explanation for racial disparities. This ignores that disparities down through history have been the norm, not the exception, and that they exist even in regions of the world where most people are of the same race. The per capita income gap between people in Eastern Europe and Western Europe, for example, is wider than the gap between whites and blacks in the U.S. Moreover, racial disparities have both grown and narrowed over time, even though racism has been constant. If Mr. Biden wants to change the governments approach to racial inequality, this history ought to inform his actions.

The greatest success of the civil-rights movement wasnt a new government program but getting government off the backs of blacks by defeating Jim Crow. Nothing the government has done since then in the name of advancing blacks has been more effective than simply ending government-sponsored discrimination. Black poverty fell by 40 percentage points between 1940 and 1960. It continued to decline in the wake of Lyndon Johnsons Great Society interventions, but at a much slower pace.

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Progressives Put the Racial Equity Squeeze on Biden - The Wall Street Journal

The usually sunny Flo is perturbed with Mara (yet again) during a work-from-home Progressive Insurance staff meeting over video. While seated at the computer, Mara is busy talking to someone at home. Mara, you know youre not on mute, right? says Flo. Oh, theres a mute button? the laconic Mara replies with genuine surprise.

During these months of work-from-home meetings, we all can relate. And Flo, of course, makes everything more relatable.

Progressive Insurances iconic spokesperson, portrayed by actress Stephanie Courtney, has not only been the star of Progressives TV ads since 2008, but also has a strong social media presence, including more than 4 million followers on Facebook. In fact, Progressive created a Flo chatbot to enable customers to interact with Flo on Facebook Messenger, as well as other channels, to help customers with basic insurance questions.

Now, Flos voice is being added to the chatbot, creating an even more personal experience for customers who adore the personable lady in the white apron.

Flo obviously has been a staple and a highly recognized brand icon for Progressive, says Matt White, technology and innovation manager in Progressives acquisition experience group. We wanted the chatbot persona to be friendly and helpful to consumers in their path to purchasing insurance, and ultimately, in becoming customers of Progressive for what we hope will be decades.

The Flo Chatbot runs on Microsoft Azure. Azure Bot Service and Azure Cognitive Services are among the services used to create the Flo Chatbot in 2017 and now, to give her a voice.

You can banter with the virtual version of Flo, if you like, and youll find shes just as polite and matter-of-fact as she is in Progressives ads.

Ask Flo what her favorite movie is, and she responds, I could try to pick a favorite, but wed be here until next Tuesday. Want to know her favorite food? I could go for a taco right about now but was told I could only have one every hour.

To get a behind-the-scenes look, we spoke with White to learn more about the Flo Chatbot with voice, Progressives work with Microsoft and whats important when it comes to helping customers.

TRANSFORM: Tells us about the origins of the journey for Progressive, Flo and Microsoft.

WHITE: We began the journey with Microsoft three years ago, when we wanted to embark on building a chatbot. But more importantly than building a chatbot was really to build a conversational experience, and frankly, learn about the potential power of having conversational experiences available in a variety of digital channels.

As weve continued to learn about what it takes to build and maintain, and ideally excel, at conversational experiences, we wanted to learn: What does it take to integrate text to speech in a voice component?

The foundation of the bot itself is the Microsoft Bot Framework. What weve done is layered on another cognitive service, so we could take all that existing architecture and foundation, and layer in the text-to-speech service.

TRANSFORM: How does the Flo Chatbot help people now, and how will adding voice change things?

WHITE: The Flo chatbot is capable of a variety of different things. Theres a large question-and-answer functionality, from Insurance 101 kind of questions What does comprehensive mean? What does collision mean in terms of car insurance coverage? to if you have policy servicing questions, we can point you in the right direction.

If youd like to get an insurance quote for a variety of products, with our subsequent releases of the Flo Chatbot, well fully build out the ability for people to get a car insurance quote through the experience.

TRANSFORM: What are some of the wackiest questions the Flo chatbot has been asked?

WHITE: I guess it depends on your perception of wacky. Theyll ask for jokes. They ask, Whats your favorite movie? Whats your favorite food?

You could say, well, its not really worth training answers on that, but people ask. The Microsoft tools certainly make it easy enough to train answers for those kinds of persona-based questions, or just chit-chat kind of questions. I think those are opportunities to delight consumers, so why wouldnt we?

TRANSFORM: Is incorporating Flos personality and sense of humor in the chatbot difficult to do?

WHITE: No, not from a technical perspective. Thankfully, we have some very talented copywriters who are used to writing in the voice of Flo for various purposes.

You always want to be on the lookout for opportunities to delight, but not unintentionally create frustration. You want to be able to acknowledge frustration, too. There are times where some wit or humor is appropriate, depending on the users engagement and what theyre asking. And then therere times when it should be just the facts, or empathy, to help. If someone chats with us and says they had a car accident, thats not the time for talking about tacos and unicorns. You still want to be friendly and helpful but get them the information they need.

TRANSFORM: What have you learned about chatbots based on communications so far from customers?

There are lots of repetitive questions that a chatbot can certainly handle well informational questions, point people to the right information. I frankly think its just as important to recognize the kinds of things where you really want customers connected to a live person.

One of the things we try and think about, too, is that we always want to provide an off-ramp; we want to avoid user frustration. So if the bot doesnt understand, or doesnt comprehend what the user might be asking, we have logic built in such that, rather than getting stuck in a loop, we offer a connection to a person who can help.

In addition to dealing with some of those repetitive questions and repetitive transactions, the chatbot has also helped surface those more complicated questions that you could envision potentially training the bot to handle, but you may not want to. It might make more sense to have a licensed insurance agent from Progressive handle those questions.

TRANSFORM: What are the benefits of using Azure Cognitive Services for the Flo chatbot?

WHITE: One advantage for us is the decoupled nature of the services. In other words, you can use what you need to use. You dont have to use everything. We use a variety of services for natural language understanding the LUIS service as well as QnA Maker. Those are two stand-alone services. We use them together, depending on the nature of the users question. Now were using the neural text-to-speech service that weve been able to kind of bolt on, if you will, to this so that we can bring voice to the experience.

Being able to integrate the bot framework, which lives in Azure, into our own kind of Progressive APIs to help answer questions or execute transactions has been one of the key advantages. Youre not locked into a huge suite of products. You can use the products that you need, and then you can layer in other products your own or others, if needed.

Another advantage with the open-source nature of the Microsoft Bot Framework is that all these services are but an API call away. If you want to layer in a new experience, or tailored experience, or use a service, its easy to integrate those pieces on the foundation theyve already built.

TRANSFORM: Are there other features that Progressive might want to add to the Flo chatbot in the future?

WHITE: We dont have any near-term plans, but as you might imagine theres a variety of other cognitive services that, depending on where our conversational journey takes us, you could envision potentially layering in things like computer vision, or machine vision, and other cognitive services.

For example, if we needed pictures of documents, if we needed pictures of anything where people could load them up into the chatbot experience we could use the machine vision service to help identify what is in the image and then process it accordingly.

I think one of the things well find as people get used to chatbots, and engage with them, theyre going to want to be able to do more things. So as those consumer demands grow, well certainly grow with it.

TRANSFORM: Its crucial to Microsoft that machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) be used responsibly and ethically. What was your experience in those areas in developing the Flo chatbot?

WHITE: I appreciate Microsofts partnership on this front as well. The technology that is out there is incredibly powerful. You can train chatbots to do a lot of things that people can do, but just because we can, doesnt mean we should. As I mentioned before, there are questions we could reasonably train the chatbot to answer, but that doesnt mean that we should. It still might be better to get people to a live Progressive Insurance consultant to discuss their particular issue, concern or question.

I think thats particularly true when you start introducing a characters voice but still a voice and I thought Microsofts approach to that in ethics and AI has been very upfront and straightforward in terms of how we use it. Its certainly been an approach consistent with Progressives own core values.

One of the things I appreciate from some of the disclosure thats required we want to make it sound real, we want to make it sound authentic, but we also want to be transparent that its not. And thats actually a requirement from Microsoft that even when you initially engage with the voice font on Google Assistant, as an example, we say upfront that this is a virtual version of Flo.

We want it to sound and act like Flo as much as it can, being a machine, but we want to be very transparent about what it is and what it isnt. So when people ask, is this a bot, is it a person, we dont try and pretend its a person. Right up front. We offer help if they want to speak to a live person, we can certainly get them there.

(Photos and audio files courtesy of Progressive.)

Visit the AI Blog to learn how Custom Neural Voice is bringing to life other iconic characters, like Bugs Bunny and the Duolingo crew.

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Progressive gives voice to Flo's chatbot, and it's as no-nonsense and reassuring as she is | Transform - Microsoft