RUBEN NAVARRETTE JR: Does Newsom support easy voting in California? Well, not always

For Latinos in California — and for that matter, around the country — what’s the difference between Republicans and Democrats?

Answer: Republicans, with all their bluster, stab us in the front, while Democrats prefer to come up quietly behind us and stick the knife between the vertebrae.

This is no longer about Democrats — to whom Latinos have given a majority of their votes in 15 presidential elections since 1960 — simply neglecting us or taking us for granted or not defending us from the GOP’s racist spasms. In some cases, Democrats actually morph into the bad guys. They deceive and double-cross Latinos because they assume we have no place to go.

For instance, does Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom really want to make it easier for Californians to vote? It depends.

If we’re talking about registered voters who Newsom hopes will cast their ballots for Democrats, the answer is “yes.”

If we’re talking about farm workers — mostly Mexican immigrants who were deemed “essential workers” during the pandemic but still aren’t respected — voting in union elections, the answer is “no.”

This week, Newsom signed Assembly Bill 37 — a Democrat-sponsored piece of legislation that makes permanent what had been a temporary change in voting procedure implemented during the early days of battling COVID-19. The bill requires election officials in each of the state’s 58 countries to mail a ballot to every registered voter for all elections, whether the voter requests it or not.

Ballot tracking in the Sept. 14 recall election showed that Democrats were more likely to return mail-in ballots than Republicans.

Last week, Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 616, a Democrat-sponsored piece of legislation that was designed to make it easier for farmworkers to vote in union elections by allowing those workers to — wait for it — vote by mail.

AB616 was pushed by the storied labor union known as the United Farm Workers of America. Founded in 1962 by the late Cesar Chavez and other labor activists, the UFW did good work in the early years. Before losing its way in the 1980s, the union helped put drinking water and portable toilets in the fields, as well as banished the notorious “short-hoe” that crippled generations of farmworkers who stooped over to cut heads of lettuce.

Because of the veto, the UFW is furious at Newsom. The governor didn’t even meet with the union beforehand.

In signing AB37, Newsom looked down his nose at Republican-run states such as Texas that are trying to turn their electorates into exclusive private clubs. “As states across our country continue to enact undemocratic voter suppression laws, California is increasing voter access, expanding voting options and bolstering elections integrity and transparency,” Newsom said in a statement.

Meanwhile, in vetoing AB616, the governor said, in a statement, that the bill contained “various inconsistencies” that would make it tough to enforce.

There you have it. There are two Gavin Newsoms. At least.

The governor suddenly loses interest in “increasing voter access” and “expanding voting options” when it comes to farmworkers and a union that claims to serve those workers, protect their welfare and advance their interests.

Of course, that part is a fairy tale. It was worked up by slick marketing specialists in the 1980s to help UFW raise money from well-meaning but clueless white liberals in cities such as Boston, Seattle and New York who think fruits and vegetables come from farmers markets.

Take it from a Mexican American who was born and raised in the farmland of Central California and who has publicly criticized the United Farm Workers for 30 years — including separate and ugly public confrontations with co-founders Chavez and Dolores Huerta that have made me persona non grata with union officials — the UFW takes care of ony the UFW.

None of that, however, lets Newsom off the hook for hoodwinking the union and trying to have it both ways on the concept of voting by mail.

Today, the UFW — which has done little organizing in recent decades and reports having fewer than 8,000 members — also takes care of slippery Democratic politicians such as Newsom, whose job the union helped save in the recent ecall election.

Silly UFW. Newsom doesn’t need you anymore. Didn’t anyone ever tell you how politics works? In both parties, blind loyalty isn’t rewarded. It’s punished.

But this isn’t just politics as usual. This is betrayal. The UFW — and the Latinos in California who claim to support the union — have a choice: Get in the governor’s face. Or get used to being abused.

Contact Ruben Navarrette at ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His podcast, “Ruben in the Center,” is available through every podcast app.