Joe Biden is better than Donald Trump for Florida

Poor Joe. He won the presidency against a low-bar performer, but he can’t catch a break from the American public, not even in a Democratic stronghold like Miami-Dade.

There’s no downplaying the lingering love affair in this county of swaying royal palms and magical political thinking — or elsewhere in Florida, for that matter — with brash Donald Trump.

Disgraced as the former president is by his self-serving actions in and out of office, he would take Florida again, polls show. Sigh.

Like a co-dependent, dysfunctional relationship, the Trump obsession is never far from view, as it comes with privilege only afforded to devotees.

Take the city where I live, Republican-run Miami Lakes.

It has strict rules against displaying political signs outside of campaign season. Yet, die-hard Trumpists in the quaint town the Democratic Grahams built are still allowed to fly “Trump Nation” flags.

In fact, some people took down the old flags, discoloured by the sun and ripped up by the wind (nature, always wiser than people) and installed new, brightly coloured banners, saying, “I dare you to mess with my inalienable right to the pursuit of neighbourly unhappiness.”

No one says a thing on their way to yoga or a walk in the park. But wait until a Democrat decides to challenge the silence of city and homeowners association officials by flying a “Biden Nation” flag. Enforcement will come down hard. I don’t need a poll to know: Too many people in Miami-Dade — a populous county vital to how Florida swings in presidential elections and to which party holds the power in Congress — prefer Trump over President Biden. A recent survey by Bendixen & Amandi International confirms that Biden leads Trump by the same 7 points he got in 2020, when in previous presidential races, Democratic candidates enjoyed double-digit wins.

The first year of Biden’s presidency has done nothing to move the needle, although his approval rating is higher in Miami-Dade than the rest of the country. A bit of good news there.

Yet, not a week goes by that a reader doesn’t ask me why I don’t write about how terrible Biden is and, as inflation soars and Russia pummels Ukraine, some feel more empowered than ever to demand an answer.

The answer is simple: Because not much of what they’re pinning on Biden, like inflation and, particularly, gas prices, is actually his fault.

Fact-checkers have delved into the origins of inflation to explain, among other things, how the Trump administration set up the stage we’re in.

In gambler terms, Trump birthed the financial game playing out, dealt the card Biden is left holding, including a mismanaged, politicized pandemic. Yet, Florida Sen. Rick Scott insists: “Thanks to the insane tax-and-spending spree of President Joe Biden and Democrats in Washington, we are seeing six straight months of raging inflation” — and voters parrot him.

During the campaign and throughout his presidency, Trump was often visibly unhinged. Few who voted for him cared. Now these same people claim to me that calm, thoughtful Biden, who portrays in his speeches a better and more united country than we are, is unhinged.

They love the word repetition despite the vast difference in character. Just because Biden is 79.

The Bendixen & Amandi poll didn’t get into the reasons why people still support Trump, but if you don’t have your head in the sand, like the Democratic Party too often does, you know.

“To understand Trump’s lingering support in Miami, you have to ultimately understand the reasons why Cuba, Venezuela and now Nicaragua were lost to authoritarian strongmen,” pollster Fernand Amandi told me. “Clearly many of our fellow residents are apparently maddeningly and myopically predisposed to support authoritarianism.”

Fabiola Santiago, Tribune News Service