Powerless

 Harry Turtledove is the author of the dystopian novel called Powerless. Charlie Simpkins lives in the San Fernando valley of Los Angeles, part of the west coast's People's Democratic Republic. In this country people must obey orders. One day Charlie gets a notice to hang up in the window of his produce store. He doesn't want to hang up the propaganda notice in the window. So he doesn't. At first things go badly for him. He looses his job. His wife thinks he should have hung up the notice. His son gets kicked off his sports team. His daughter looses the chance to be in a girls group. Charlie gets another job that takes a longer bus ride and pays less. Eventually the family is told they must move to another town 30 miles away. Suddenly things start going better for Charlie and his family all because he stood up for himself and didn't hang that notice.