The Democrats Played Dirty in Nevada

SAN DIEGO -- In the 2016 election, the plotline for Latino Democrats is excitement followed by disappointment.

The Nevada caucuses were supposed to be a coming-out fiesta for America's largest minority. The Silver State is one of three battleground states -- along with Colorado and Florida -- where Latinos make up a significant share of voters.

Latinos make up 5.6 percent of the population of Iowa, and 3.3 percent in New Hampshire.

But they account for 27.8 percent of the population of Nevada. So that is where Latino voters were supposed to flex their muscle, both as their own bloc and also as part of two other important constituencies -- young people and union members.

Unfortunately, that moment of glory was marred by a dirty trick that Democrats usually use on Republicans but will occasionally also employ against their own kind.

In a desperate attempt to poison the well on the day of the Democratic caucuses and dampen the enthusiasm of Latinos who were leaning toward Bernie Sanders, Clinton supporters -- led by a Latina opportunist who will sit at a table with whoever butters her bread -- played the nativist card.

The Clintonistas started spreading an ugly accusation that supporters of the Vermont senator had, while caucusing at Harrah's casino in Las Vegas, responded to a request for interpreters for Spanish speakers by angrily shouting out "English only."

The accusation was lodged by Dolores Huerta, an outspoken Clinton supporter and labor activist who plays rough and has for years been milking her celebrity status from the 1960s.

In Nevada, Huerta tweeted: "I offered to translate & Bernie supporters chanted English only! We fought too long & hard to be silenced Si Se Puede! #ImwithHer #NVcaucus." Actress America Ferrera, who also supports Clinton, chimed in with this tweet: "Harrah's casino site -- Bernie supporters chant 'English-only' to stop civil rights leader @DoloresHuerta from providing Spanish translation."

Ferrera is just another Hollywood celebrity who supposedly cares a lot but doesn't know much. Huerta, however, is a professional agitator.

She is a founding member of the United Farm Workers, an organization that has its own spotty history of dabbling in nativist politics. Over the years, Huerta has refused to admit -- in face-to-face confrontations with me -- the documented fact that the union was once an arm of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, back in the days when UFW officials would turn in illegal immigrants who crossed picket lines and demand that the government deport more of them.

In 2008, Huerta went after Barack Obama, when the Illinois senator challenged Clinton for the Democratic nomination, by pegging him as a "Johnny-come-lately" to the courting of Latino voters and the addressing of Latino concerns. She was right about that. But that didn't stop her from accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom four years later when Obama offered it to her.

Recently, Huerta has run the same game on Sanders, accusing him of being a Bernie-come-lately to Latino issues. Right again. The problem is that Huerta won't admit that, when it comes to addressing Latino concerns, she is backing a Hillary-come-lately.

So what really happened in Las Vegas?

Supporters of Sanders who were in the room, including actress Susan Sarandon, insist that there was no "English only" chant.

Now it seems that Huerta was wrong. It wasn't Sanders' backers who uttered the loaded phrase but the moderator, who explained that -- since the two camps couldn't find a neutral translator -- the vote would continue in "English only."

This could have been an innocent mistake. But, knowing Huerta, it was just as likely a shameless smear. Either way, let's hope that the episode finally dispels the fiction that Huerta serves the interests of Latinos. Ultimately, she is an advocate for only one cause: herself. And she will say anything she needs to say -- including trying to hang the nativist label on, of all people, Bernie Sanders -- to get what she wants.

Meanwhile, let's also hope that Sanders' supporters learned a lesson about the nasty business of impugning people's motives by accusing them of racism or nativism. In the past, they've not said a word, or cared a whit, when this was done to Republicans. And now they're shocked and outraged that it was done to them.

Liberals need to wake up. It's one of the first things you learn in Politics 101: You run with jackals, and, sooner or later, you're going to get bit.

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