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Harry S. Truman had been vice president for just 82 days when President Franklin D. Roosevelt died unexpectedly on April 12, 1945.
During his short time in the role, Vice President Truman had barely seen FDR, and had not been briefed on many critical wartime issues, including development of the atomic bomb.
“I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me,” Truman told reporters the day after Roosevelt’s death.
We don’t mean to trivialize the unimaginable pressure Truman faced, but it is hard not to imagine that Kathy Bozinski isn’t feeling a little like the moon and stars have fallen on her, too.
She is now, rather suddenly, chairwoman of the Luzerne County Democratic Party one week after one of its political standard-bearers defected, at a time when the party has been working furiously to stop the bleeding of declining registration, and all of this heading into a presidential election year that promises to be like nothing the nation has ever seen.
As if that were not challenging enough, our county no doubt will be in the national spotlight again in 2020 after its critical role in delivering Pennsylvania — and, some say, the White House — to Donald Trump in 2016.
No pressure, right?
As described in today’s edition, Bozinski’s promotion within the party came Tuesday following the resignation of her predecessor, John Pekarovsky, who had been in the post since June 2018.
In fairness, Pekarovsky’s departure probably wasn’t unexpected in the wake of state Sen. John Yudichak’s high-profile defection from the party last week to become an independent who will caucus with Republicans in Harrisburg.
No doubt, though, its timing obviously came as a jolt to Bozinski. When she spoke with News Editor Roger DuPuis on Tuesday afternoon, Bozinski noted that she was still processing the ramifications after what she described as “an interesting five-and-a-half hours.”
“I believe we need to embrace traditional Democrats in Luzerne County. I believe we have to engage young Democrats in Luzerne County,” Bozinski told DuPuis.
“I think we also have to reach out and engage with folks who have moved into this area from other states,” said Bozinski, who had been the party’s vice chair.
Let us be very clear here: The purpose of this editorial is not to take a partisan view of this issue. Nor were we taking a partisan view of matters last week when we called Yudichak’s move “bold but understandable.”
Both major parties have changed. Politics in this country has brought the extremist elements in both camps to the fore over the past generation. To be a centrist, to seek compromise, is often portrayed as weak at best, traitorous at worst.
Yudichak spoke about wanting to “support Democratic ideas as well as Republican ideas when it is clear that they serve the greater good and help government work for people rather than the narrow interests of partisan ‘purists.’”
We believe that he means what he said, but we also recognize that frustration with Democratic policies — specifically toward the planned closure of White Haven State Center and SCI-Retreat — likely help pushed Yudichak to finally make the move he apparently had been considering.
It is hard to escape the reality that the Democratic party here, as in many parts of the country where many feel left out amid seismic economic shifts, has lost support as frustrated voters sought change and a president who spoke to their concerns.
Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, many of those Democrats and former Democrats felt passionately that Donald J. Trump was that someone, and still do.
In her interview with DuPuis, Bozinski spoke passionately about why she is a Democrat, hearkening back to the values of her Polish immigrant grandfather, and how the party’s values supported the American Dream that he and millions of others were able to achieve thanks to hard work, but also thanks to a party that supported workers, including immigrants.
Is the Democratic Party still the party of the American Dream? Bozinski and many others still believe so, but not as many as used to around here. Reclaiming that mantle will be the task facing Bozinski, party leaders and candidates going into 2020.
Whatever lies ahead, it won’t be boring.
— Times Leader