Tansy Gold for President

[Tansy_Gold]

I figured April 1st was as good a day as any to make the official announcement.

Tansy Gold is running for President of the United States.

Mine is going to be a unique campaign because it will cost absolutely nothing. I will have no campaign staff, no campaign budget, no bumper stickers or buttons, probably not even a website, although I think I do own the domain name TansyGold2012.com. I will accept no campaign contributions from anyone at all, and be beholden to no one BUT THE PUBLIC after I'm elected. I will not make any personal campaign appearances or ads. If the news media want to interview me, they'll have to do it by phone or email or something; I'm not leaving home even to drive to a tv or radio studio.

My campaign is kind of modeled on those of the late comedian Pat Paulsen, except he did much more real campaigning than I will do.

After all, Pat Paulsen was a real person. Tansy Gold is a DU persona, just a name in cyberspace with a real person pulling the keyboard strings as it were.

The real person behind Tansy Gold is not running for President.

I've laughed and joked about this for several years, especially over in the daily Stock Market Watch thread, and I figure now is the time to put my lack of money where my fingers are and actually do it.

There will be nothing "coordinated" about this campaign, because that might mean having to file paperwork and statements and so on. This is just me and my keyboard -- and the issues. Anybody else who wants to run for any other office is free to do so. We can debate issues here, get our threads locked if they become too contentious, put each other on ignore, send alerts, whatever. (And yes, I'm quite aware that the mods and admins may choose to yank this thread and even tombstone me. That is always their option.)

But this campaign IS going to be about the issues, everything from closing Gitmo (haven't we heard that before?) to corporate tax rates to minimum wage to clean air to logging in national forests to abortion to school prayer to unions to hedge funds to health care to whatever you want to debate.


Would you, if you had the choice, vote for a candidate who promised, if elected, to work and not pre-emptively compromise with the GOP and DINOs in Congress on:

1. An immediate cease-fire and structured withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq and Libya and Pakistan, accountability from military "contractors," and a major reduction in the Pentagon budget?

2. Without qualifications or hedges, a true single-payer health plan for the United States and promises to work toward a Medicare-for-all program regardless how loud the insurance companies scream?

3. EVERY woman's right to choose whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term, including the right to obtain an abortion covered by her health care plan, including a single-payer, Medicare-for-all plan, based solely on discussions between her and her doctor?

4. A fair and equitable income tax structure that treats income from wages, salaries, and small business profits as earned income subject to a lower tax rate than unearned income derived from investments and inheritances?

5. American workers' jobs, benefits, and safety ahead of corporate profits?

6. Innovations within the public education system that would keep our schools truly public and accountable but free of corporate manipulation and undue influence?

7. Research and investment in viable renewable energy programs to lessen everyone's dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels and dangerous nuclear power?

8. Appointment of cabinet members and administration staff and advisers who have liberal and progressive records and experience, rather than corporate-friendly stooges?

9. Nomination of federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, whose records indicate they favor justice for all over privileges for a few?

10. No nonsense, no lies, a transparent and WYSIWYG Presidency?


I'm from Chicago, and though I've always been a White Sox fan, the Cubs' fan's perennial "Wait 'til next year!" is more than familiar. Well, it's next year now. Baseball season has started, and so has the campaign season. Let's play ball.




Tansy Gold, 2012

[Turbineguy]

1. Was it Pat Paulson who offered to debate Nixon?

"And just to make it fair, I won't shave!"

[Octafish]

2. You sound like a Democrat.

Know that you are means I'd vote for you.

[hamerfan]

3. K&R!

TG for Prez. It has a very cool ring to it. You gots my vote.

[DemReadingDU]

4. You have my vote!

[Hotler]

5. May I be your running mate for VP?

K&r

[AnneD]

6. Of course .....

the final decision is Tansy's but I spoke up for that position over a year ago when we first started kicking around the idea on the Stock Watch Thread.

I am sure the Gold Administration will have need for many talented folks.

My bio: My plumbing works or did work. I raised a pretty good kid in this screwed up culture.

I am married-my hubby is from India and I am an American Indian of the Cherokee tribe. We can finally unite the Indians of America.

I am a Nurse so you know I work and get things done. I cut through BS like a hot knife through butter.

I currently work as a School Nurse in middle school. This experience has honed my ability to detect liars. This will be an asset in Washington.

I am a believer in kitchen cupboard economics. We can't spend what isn't in the coffee can. We share and share alike. Everyone eats or no one eats, but no one gets a double portion until everyone gets a fair portion.

That is all I can think of. I lived a real life so there are skeletons in my closet, but I grew up, learned from my mistakes and try to be a better person. I am religious but I don't think God is interested in our politics and has probably forgiven me for the discretions of my youth.

If you overlook my discretions, I will over look yours and no federal agency will poke into your past or feel you up in the airport.

I will try to be as much help as I can to Tansy because I think she is one smart person. We disagree at times but we speak our minds and move on. I bring to the table a deep understanding of the oil industry, medical industry, the education arena, womens issues, small business, family farm and agriculture, and military.

[Tansy_Gold]

7. "The Gold Administration." Kinda has a ring about it, non?

Bad puns aside, AnneD did speak up about the VP slot. The reason I'm shying away -- TG is shy??? -- from having a "ticket" as such is that I don't want ANYTHING to be "co-ordinated" from my end. That way nobody can get their panties in a wad about whether or not this is a "real" campaign.

EVERYONE is welcome to chime in on the issues. I know, I know, DU is probably a lot further to the left than the DNC and any campaign here probably won't have any impact on anything, but we'll never know unless we try.

I'm gonna try.



TG, 2012

[AnneD]

8. The only thing I care to organize...

is our hook up next time I am out visiting Mom. I hope I will not be as sick as I was last time and we can actually have that Mexican Dinner we were planning.

[Tansy_Gold]

9. WORKS FOR ME!!! You name the date. .. . n/t

[tclambert]

11. The Gold Standard of candidates.

[Demeter]

23. I'd Like to Be Lord High Executioner

I think I could take an axe to our nation's problems and really clear out the deadwood....I'm such a cut up, everybody would be in stitches.

Furthermore, I can do patter songs from the Mikado. And High C's and even F's.

If that's not an option: Energy Czarina. I'd have us into renewable, sustainable economy in 18 months or else.

You've already got my resume, TG. Keep in touch.

[Tansy_Gold]

24. Start putting together that energy policy

If nothing else, it'll be something to talk out loud about while you're pitchin' papers.


TG

[Starry Messenger]

10. Hey, works for me.

:D Just your education policies alone would earn you my vote.

[Tansy_Gold]

12. A president can only do so much.

Local school boards and communities and states should have final jurisdiction.

But a president can set the tone, can appoint a SecEd who promotes and defends public education, can lobby for legislation that protects the rights of all children to quality schools and quality teachers.

What's been going on with the public schools in Michigan, in Florida, in Chicago, in New York, in New Jersey, in Arizona, in California -- gee, just about EVERYWERE -- is intolerable as far as I'm concerned. I didn't grow up rich, but I got an excellent public school education. There's no reason -- other than lack of political will -- that EVERY child in the United States shouldn't have that same opportunity.

No more blaming teachers for things they have no control over. No more promotion of charter schools that have no accountability and funnel profits to corporations. No more promotion of programs like NCLB and RTT.

May the spirits of Howard Jarvis and Del Webb rot in hell forever for the damage they did to public education.



TG, TT, who if elected will appoint a TEACHER to be Secretary of Education (and if I forget that promise, you guys damn well better haul this post out, wave it in my face, and remind me!)

[Starry Messenger]

18. I like it!

[hamerfan]

13. Kicking for a great cause!

Run, Tansy, run! :hi:
:kick:
:yourock:

[KamaAina]

14. Gold? Isn't that kind of a Jewish name?

You know someone's gonna bring that up during the primaries. Maybe even ask to see your birth certificate. :sarcasm:

[Tansy_Gold]

15. See, that's where this campaign gets to be fun

Tansy Gold has no birth certificate. She can't prove she was born a citizen, but no one else can prove she wasn't.

Funny thing is, though, that the real person behind Tansy Gold is, technically, Jewish, even though she definitely does not have a "Jewish" name.


TG, 2012

[KamaAina]

16. Oh, for Pete's sake

Tansy Gold isn't even 35 years old. She can be no older than 11, because DU didn't exist until Selection 2000.

[Tansy_Gold]

20. Tansy Gold existed before DU

and I can prove it.

:evilgrin:


It's up to someone else to prove she didn't.



TG, TT

[AnneD]

28. I went through enough grief....

getting that tribal roll card. I have enough birth certificates for the two of us. I can loan you one.

[Arkana]

17. Hmmm...

1. I was with you until Libya. I'd like to know why we're supposed to ignore the suffering of a group of people that asked us to help them.

2. Again, I'm totally behind you as soon as you explain how you get it through Congress. And you lose points if I see the phrase "use the bully pulpit". I want to know in SPECIFIC terms how you convince the conservative members of your caucus to vote for it--what concessions do you grant them in exchange for their votes on this landmark piece of legislation?

3. Cool! Awesome idea! No, really--I agree. Now get Congress to pass it. You don't get to use the executive order.

4. Awesome, but I sure hope you have a liberal Supreme Court and OVERWHELMING control of both houses of Congress.

5. I agree 100% but you're rather light on specifics. What pieces of legislation would you push to make this happen?

6. Hate to tell you this but as long as there are corporations and schools in need of money this kind of shit will happen. Schools (for the most part) are going to continue to sell pizza and soda, people who know nothing about public education are going to continue to be placed in charge of managing it on the state and federal level, and school curriculums are going to remain fucked up in places where education is spat upon by people who deride intellectuals as "elitist". I'm not saying I agree, I'm just saying that's how it is--and that you will need willpower unlike that of any public official in history in order to fix it.

7. I have no problem with this whatsoever and I think it's probably the easiest item on your list, although I would disagree about nuclear power.

8. This is completely ridiculous. What metrics will you use? If the person has ever had any contact with a corporation ever? I used to work for an insurance company--would that disqualify me from ever holding a Cabinet post?

9. Good. Now write up some rules and convince all future Republican Presidents to play ball, and you've got yourself a fair fight.

10. In a country with dozens of intelligence agencies secrecy in government is invariably going to exist. Now I will not say that the Obama administration hasn't broken some of their promises on government transparency, because they have--but there is a balance that can be struck, and this just feels like you're saying "THROW ALL THE DOORS OPEN! I WANT THE LAUNCH CODES RIGHT NOW!"

[Tansy_Gold]

21. Here's my reply, and it may not answer all your questions to your complete

satisfaction --

This is a grassroots campaign -- or at least it is until the summer in Arizona dries up all the grass. So what that means is that these issues have to be taken from my campaign by the voters and the state and local races. Michael Moore has said the same thing: run for school board, run for city council, find candidates who will.

If the Tansy Gold campaign takes off -- and it very well may not, but I won't have lost any money on it -- it's because the issues matter. And if the issues matter enough to enough people, they will run or they will find other people to run.

The Democrats in Arizona, in Maricopa County, Arizona, couldn't even come up with enough candidates to run for many county and state offices. That's fucking pathetic. (Disclaimer: I live in even redder Pinal County next door.) Apparently the issues didn't matter enough to them.

Look at what's happening in Wisconsin. The issues suddenly matter. Take a look at the DU thread with the pictures from the labor march in Pennsylvania today. They marched in the rain/freezing rain/snow, because the issues matter.

Barack Obama had congressional majorities and "it's said" that he couldn't get "his" legislation passed even with those majorities. I would say instead that he never tried. Tell me I come from the "Dave" school of politics, and I wouldn't disagree.

Is it all about the reality of playing the games in Washington? Maybe. But maybe that's a cop out. Maybe it's time someone stood up and said I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to play that game any more.

I believe it was General Anthony Zinni who, when interviewed on NPR shortly after his retirement from the US Marine Corps, said something along the lines of being in an echo chamber and not being able to hear anything but what "they" want you to hear. When he was in the marines, he was surrounded by other marines and they all had the same mindset and they couldn't seem to get off the merry-go-round. ONCE HE RETIRED AND STARTED HEARING OTHER IDEAS, he realized how bad the situation in Iraq was, and how bad it had been at the beginning, and how it could probably never have been anything but bad.

I won't put out any Tansy Gold for President posters or bumper stickers, but that doesn't mean someone else can't make their own. What happens when one person does and then someone asks them, "Who the fuck is Tansy Gold and what's she doing running for president?"?

What happens when the powers that be get wind of something shaking the foundations of their secure little towers?

What happens? What if? What if?

Anyone who reads this is perfectly free to laugh and sneer and put me on ignore and walk away and do nothing. I'll never know and it won't hurt my feelings at all.

But we'll never know if we don't try.



TG, TT

[treestar]

31. What if you had the specific 111th Senate?

What would you have done with Lieberman? What would you do if the Republicans had 40 Senators including Lieberman and they filibustered everything?

In short, what would you do if Congress would not give you everything you wanted? Veto the bills no matter what? Pound on the bully pulpit? How would you handle the media criticism?

What if the Senate would not confirm an appointment? Would you leave the office open?

You would be a one termer, and the public would have no patience with you. You'd burn bridges everywhere. Nothing would change at all, not incrementally, no big changes.

You're not better than Obama at anything (or indeed, you'd have no time to post here). You just have the ability to dream and don't have any true responsibility. And dream that the Presidency is all powerful. And that you having all that power, would not be at all compromised by that.

[NYC Liberal]

33. Well there you go bringing reality in here.

How dare you!

[JNelson6563]

37. A pretend election in the pretend world of DU.

It makes it easy to pretend you're "making a difference".

[Tansy_Gold]

39. And that's the whole point

[bvar22]

19. You have my vote,

and unqualified support!
:patriot:

The only thing I would change in the above platform,
is replacing the question marks with Exclamation Points!

[Cleita]

22. Sure! Why not?

Congratulations on declaring your candidacy.

[Hugabear]

25. Can I be part of your administration?

Any cabinet position would be fine, or you could always make me Ambassador to Sweden :)

[AnneD]

26. Hugabear......

We will need an Ambassador to Sweden, but I think I would put in for Tansy to appoint Julian Assange for that position. You don't have to be a natural citizen, so I hope this would give him some immunity in the witch hunt he is going through. My question is why Sweden?

[Hugabear]

36. Why Sweden?

Because it seems like a very progressive country, and I'm sure I would enjoy it there.

Although Germany or the Netherlands would be a good choices as well. Japan would have been my first choice, but not sure how nice it would be with all the radiation leaking into the water and atmosphere.

If Tansy were president, couldn't she just give Assange a presidential pardon?

[inna]

27. You got my vote. Can I be your ambassador to France?

[AnneD]

29. Do you know ....

The difference between blue or Roquefort, Brie and Camembert, are you up on your cheddars. Do you have a working knowledge of wine. Do you know how the croissant got it's name? When you think of the Paris underground, do you think of the Metro or the sewers? What is your HDL and LDL numbers?

We have standards you know.

[inna]

30. Good answer!! Tansy for Prez, damn it!!

[jtuck004]

32. That's a "Gold Standard" I can believe in. eom

[onethatcares]

34. I'd like to borrow your platform and run against you

we can give the citizenry a reason to say, "they're all alike"

seriously, can I? or is it may I?

[Tansy_Gold]

40. You can do whatever you like

And you don't need my permission.

This is an exercise in "what if?" and it should be treated that way. I think it's interesting that some of the people who have given the current President well over two years and voiced not a peep of complaint are demanding that *I*, a mere candidate who has not seen her name written in on a single ballot, must provide concrete answers for every problem in my first annoucement.

The implication, as I infer it, is that since Obama couldn't do anything, no one could have. No one on earth. Not a single soul could possibly have changed anything. Now, that to me is a very defeatest attitude, rather akin to WE'RE DOOOOOOOMED!!!!! (some people apparently have never read Douglas Adams and don't understand that whole thing about infinite alternatives or whatever it was.)

First of all, we don't know if Obama even tried to do anything. We certainly didn't see him put on his comfy shoes and walk with the workers. (Yes, yes, I know some of them said they didn't want him there, but do we know if that's an honest answer or covering his ass?) We know he backtracked and backtracked and backtracked on HCR with single payer or a public option or Medicare-for-all. We know these things. We know Gitmo is still open, troops are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rich are still getting fabulous tax breaks, etc., etc., etc.

Second of all, I think that putting all our hopes on one person, ignoring that person's failings, and then making excuses for that person's failings (even though those failings don't exist) is all counter-productive. My intention is to initiate a dialogue on these issues, the kind of dialogue that, if a real candidate were expressing them, would generate action on the part of the real candidates.

The real person behind Tansy Gold is not going to run for real office. That takes money, which she doesn't have. It would mean leaving her home where she's comfortable. It would mean exposing skeletons that should rest in peace in her closet. It would mean a real campaign that would cost her her temper, because she really has no patience whatsofuckingever with stupidity and/or rightwing bullshit. Tansy Gold is a comfortable and convenient surrogate.

For those who don't like the idea, hey, folks, just tune out! Put me on ignore so you don't have to be bothered by my threads and posts and journal. But be warned: If you make personal attacks, I will alert on you. The alert button is my very good friend.

Disclaimer right up front:

I do not personally know any DUers; I have spoken on the phone once or twice with one DUer, and several times with another who hasn't posted here in years. I correspond by private email with I think three DUers, none of whom I have ever met. I do not know, nor have I ever been, a moderator on DU. I used to post -- as Tansy Gold -- on another discussion board where I am still registered but I do not post there any longer and probably never will.

WYSIWYG.


Tansy Gold

[onethatcares]

45. you are da bomb.

I am very happy to have made your aquaintance more or less on this DU message board thing.:toast: :hi:

[xchrom]

35. i get to decorate the christmas tree and host the easter egg hunt.

there will be many frightened children when i am done.

[Tansy_Gold]

41. That's Winter Holiday Tree and Spring Holiday Egg Hunt.

But you can decorate to your heart's content!

:hi:



TG

[xchrom]

42. it'll be Fabulous and Offensive in one big Gay Swoop! nt

[Tansy_Gold]

43. I'm loving it already! n/t

[AnneD]

44. To be fair.....

Declaring War on Christmas has become such a tradition around here...can we have a camo Christmas theme. It would mean so much to Billo and the RW. I say undo all the laws and foreign wars and let's just keep the War on Christmas. We will save a tidy bundle.

But what to do about Easter....I am sure you could come up with something on that.

Edited: A decked out bunny delivering colored eggs-how totally gay is that. Go for it.

[Norrin Radd]

38. Stay Gold.

[Ikonoklast]

46. I can be the Ambassador to Unicornlandia!

Yippee!