Morris Coffman has been a truck driver for 35 years. And he's been a conservative for even longer than that — his whole life.
"That said," Coffman told Business Insider, "[Trump] is absolutely a moron. His idiotic ideas will tank the economy even further."
Truckers, like Coffman, lean conservative. A Verdant Labs analysis of Federal Elections Commission data found that nearly three-quarters of truck drivers are Republican — one of the most conservative jobs in America, along with surgeons and farmers.
And truck drivers supported Trump in droves, according to an Overdrive magazine survey from 2016. About 75% said they planned to vote for Trump, up from 66% who supported Sen. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.
But a sharp downturn in the trucking industry and a slew of tax changes have hampered their ability to make a living. And many connect those two trends to Trump's economic policies.
"He has not affected our business in a positive way," said one truck driver who asked to be quoted anonymously for fear their small business might suffer. "He's killing our business. If consumers aren't buying, then there is no demand. This really isn't about my political leanings — it's pure business."
Trump's tax reworking in 2017 led to many truck drivers having to pay hundreds in taxes this year, thanks to a change in per-diem laws. Dennis Bridges, an accountant who specializes in doing taxes for truckers, told Mother Jones in April that 75% of his clients saw an unusually large tax payment, and about 20% had to fork over more than $5,000.
That might've been bearable in 2018, when trucking capacity was tight, the industry was raking in cash, and truckers saw their pay jump. But now the trucking "bloodbath," as Coffman and other truckers describe current transportation conditions, has meant low rates and low pay for truckers. Trucking has been in a recession since late 2018.
When I saw your thread title, I thought to myself, "The female ones, the male ones, or both?"
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"
Dr. Shades wrote:When I saw your thread title, I thought to myself, "The female ones, the male ones, or both?"
or the mother ones?
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires...seek discipline and find your liberty I can tell if a person is judgmental just by looking at them what is chaos to the fly is normal to the spider - morticia addams If you're not upsetting idiots, you might be an idiot. - Ted Nugent
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"
The truckers I know are conservatives. I'm not at all surprised they are growing in hatred for Trump who doesn't have his finger on the pulse of the economy like US truckers do. Not to mention he doesn't have brains or coordination enough to drive today's semis. He couldn't get one out of a country club parking lot on his own.
Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up.
Chinese Proverb