On the left side of US politics, we vote for people because they plan to do stuff we like — because as the famous saying goes, shit is fucked up and bullshit. Now we are confronted with several platoons-worth of candidates. What would they do, if elected? My mission is to sift their statements for specifics. It would be impossible to cover the full span of issues here, so this report focuses on the candidates’ stances regarding the economics of inequality, a veil for their implied posture on class struggle. I’ve surveyed the candidates’ “Issues” sections, so you don’t have to.

The initial task is to flush out the bromides. We also ignore the pretend candidates with zero chance, support, or credibility. So, bye-bye Marianne Williamson, John Delaney, Seth Moulton, Tim Ryan, Andrew Yang, Wayne Messam, Joe Sestak, Eric Swalwell, Tulsi Gabbard, Steve Bullock, and Tom Steyer. Although they enjoy the credibility of incumbency, for reasons of space we will also filter out very long shots like Michael Bennet, Amy Klobuchar, Bill de Blasio, Jay Inslee, and Kirsten Gillibrand.

That leaves the current front-runners: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and a handful of others in hot pursuit — Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Beto O’Rourke, and Pete Buttigieg.