# The Conscience of a Conservative — Character guide

> Key figures in The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater.

- [Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/narrator.md): An unnamed conservative who refuses to apologize for his convictions, insisting that freedom, not economics, is the beating heart of the political philosophy he defends.
- [The Communists](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/the_communists.md): The totalitarian adversary whose collectivist creed subordinates the individual soul to the state, serving as the narrator's starkest example of everything conservatism must resist.
- [Candidate X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/candidate_x.md): A hypothetical political candidate used to illustrate conservative principles in action.
- [Congress](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/congress.md): The federal legislature whose expanding appetite for power over the states and the citizenry becomes the narrator's prime exhibit of government overreach.
- [The Kremlin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/the_kremlin.md): The seat of Soviet power and the narrator's central foreign-policy antagonist, embodying the tyrannical collectivism that threatens free peoples everywhere.
- [The States](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/the_states.md): The individual American states whose constitutional prerogatives the narrator champions against a federal government that has steadily usurped their rightful authority.
- [Conservatives](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/conservatives.md): The narrator's political kin, a tradition he insists has never been a mere economic theory but a full philosophy of the whole man, spiritual and free.
- [Mr. Larson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/mr_larson.md): A specific individual mentioned as an example of a conservative voter or thinker.
- [President Eisenhower](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/president_eisenhower.md): The U.S. president whose policies are critiqued from a conservative perspective.
- [The True Conservative](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/the_true_conservative.md): An idealized figure representing the narrator's vision of principled conservatism.
- [Most Americans](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/most_americans.md): The general American public whose values the narrator claims to represent.
- [Alexis de Tocqueville](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/alexis_de_tocqueville.md): French political thinker quoted on American democracy and individualism.
- [Big Labor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/big_labor.md): Organized labor unions portrayed as a threat to individual worker freedom.
- [Senator Taft](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/senator_taft.md): Late conservative senator praised for his principled stands on labor and foreign policy.
- [The Soviets](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/the_soviets.md): The Soviet Union as a geopolitical adversary in the Cold War context.
- [The Liberals](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/the_liberals.md): Political opponents advocating for expanded government and welfare programs.
- [Alexander Hamilton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/alexander_hamilton.md): Founding Father referenced in debates over federal power and constitutional interpretation.
- [Communism](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters/communism.md): The ideological system opposed by the narrator as antithetical to freedom.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_conscience_of_a_conservative_se/characters