Life in the Shadow of the American Dream -Reich

[justaprogressive]

Friends,

From time to time I come across a personal story about life in Trump’s America that’s so powerful that I want to share it with you. Here’s one, from Andrew Tait. It was originally published in the Daily Yonder on August 1, 2025. (For more rural reporting and small-town stories, visit dailyyonder.com.)

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My Family Lives in the Shadow of the American Dream
By Andrew Tait

I live in Shenandoah County, Virginia. I’m a factory worker, a farmer, and a father of two girls, one still in diapers. I get up before the sun, and most days I don’t sit down until after it’s gone.

My partner Hannah and I raise our girls on a small farm in the Valley. She works full-time too—though nobody calls it that. She’s a caregiver, a homemaker, a livestock handler, and a mother. She doesn’t get a paycheck. She doesn’t get a break. She doesn’t get counted.

We’ve relied on a cistern for water for over three years. I’m trying to save up to dig a well before it runs dry. We heat with firewood I cut myself. We raise animals for milk, eggs, and meat, because the grocery bill outpaces my paycheck.

We’ve stayed unmarried—not because we don’t love each other, but because getting married would kick my partner and our daughters off the Medicaid that keeps them healthy.

My employer offers insurance, sure—but only if I pay nearly as much as our mortgage. I can’t, so we stay as we are: in love but locked out.

I’m not ashamed of our life. It’s honest work, and it’s full of love. However, I am ashamed that in a country as wealthy as ours, people like us are left out in the cold.

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/life-in-the-shadow-of-the-american

[SWBTATTReg]

1. A story too often repeated across this land of ours, and I don't see the outrage that should be there,

as opposed to $billionaires getting their taxes cut even more.