Latinos Get Played Again by Democrats

In the civil rights movement of the 1960s, African-Americans held up placards declaring: "I am somebody."

Today, Latino voters need to hold up signs that say: "I am not somebody's favorite food item."

But as insults go, the taco bowl slight wasn't the worst thing that Democrats did to Latinos recently. That prize goes to Clinton herself for skipping over rising star Julian Castro and choosing as her running mate Tim Kaine, who is generously described as a boring white guy.

Personally, I'm glad to see a white male get this gig. They never get anything.

All Castro did was campaign with Clinton, try to make her more popular with Latinos, help rebrand her as "La Hillary," defend her email shenanigans, and dismiss GOP investigations into the Benghazi attacks as a witch hunt.

The housing secretary also praised Clinton during an interview in violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits partisan political activity by federal employees -- even those being considered as vice presidential candidates.

I'm not upset that my friend was passed over. I never expected him to be chosen by Clinton. I knew this was a tease.

But I'm furious at the cynical, dishonest and manipulative way in which this whole VP selection process was handled by Team Clinton. Democratic Party insiders were telling me as early as six months ago that Castro was out of the running.

The reason: Trump, who is especially hateful toward Latinos. As it became clear that the Manhattan real estate developer was going to win the Republican nomination, it also became clear that Clinton was going to automatically get 70 to 80 percent of the Latino vote. She didn't need Castro anymore.

What she needed was someone to make her more palatable to working-class white males. Enter Kaine, who has been lobbying for this job for the better part of a year. To make things worse, the Clinton campaign picked up a line that Kaine's Senate staffers have been advancing for months -- emphasizing that Kaine speaks Spanish.

The point was to undercut the competition. Like many second- and third-generation Mexican-Americans whose parents and grandparents were discriminated against for not speaking English, Castro doesn't speak Spanish. So what? Today, about 70 percent of Latinos speak English proficiently.

Message to Republicans: We don't all eat taco bowls. Message to Democrats: We don't all speak Spanish.

So, if Castro was indeed out of the running months ago, why did Clinton and other Democrats keep dangling his name in front of Latino voters like a carrot put in front of a burro to get it to pull a plow? That's just cruel.

Why? Because when you're talking about human beings in terms of taco bowls, burros are a step up.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com.