Bernie Sanders
The narrator and protagonist of the book is the U.S. Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders. The narrative covers a specific period in his life which extends from June 14, 2016 to February 2019. The text covers the period when Sanders was campaigning across America for the Democratic nominations for President.
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton is former First Wife, U.S. Senator and Secretary of State who competed for the Democratic nomination for President against Sanders in 2016. Clinton would eventually go to win the nomination and win the generation election only to lose the Presidency as a result of the bizarre American system which allows the person who comes in second to call the winner of an election.
Donald Trump
Donald Trump won the Republican nomination for President on the basis of winning the most delegates. In the general election against Hillary Clinton, he became the second candidate in less than two decades to become President despite not winning the most votes. While most of the book covers the period of time in which Trump, as a candidate, represented merely a potential threat to the country, Sanders introduces some elements which take place after the election as evidence that the potential has been realized.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Ocasio-Cortez is a young woman from New York who over the span of two years went from being an anonymous waitress to one of the most feared and despised members of Congress on the part of the Republican Party, right-wingers and Trump voters. Ocasio-Cortez is the symbolic personification of the abstract concept of progressive ideals and calls for change represented by the Sanders campaign in 2016. She is forwarded as the face of the future of the Democratic Party as a result not only of her unexpected toppling of a long-serving mainstream Democratic functionary in Congress, but because so many others have been inspired by her longshot victory and forceful status as a freshman member of the House.
