Roseanne Barr
Outreach and exploratory questionnaire for the 2012 GPUS presidential nomination
1. Are you interested in seeking the Green Party 2012 presidential nomination? Are you considering seeking the nomination, but have not yet made up your mind? What factors are you taking into consideration?
I am 100% committed to seeking Green Party 2012 presidential nomination and look forward to competing for the nomination while promoting the values and ideals of the Green Party to our fellow Americans.
2. What do you believe the goals should be of the 2012 GPUS presidential campaign? If you were the GPUS presidential nominees, how would your campaign work to achieve them? (Will your campaign succeed?)
The goals of my presidential campaign are to speak to the needs of the 99% and support them in their struggle for economic justice and true representation that is not influenced by outside corporate forces. Corporations are not people. Both the Democratic and Republican parties are bought and paid for by corporate America and cater to the needs of the highest bidder as opposed to the people they claim to represent. I cannot be bought. I have been a tireless advocate of Occupy Wall Street since Day 1 when I delivered my campaign speech in Liberty Plaza on September 17th, 2011. I have considerable access to mass media as a result of spending the greater part of my life in show business. I look forward to utilizing that platform during this campaign for the GPUS nomination and reaching a wide audience while speaking to the needs of the 99%. I will take my campaign for the GPUS nomination to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, the Internets and beyond, thus changing the course of the conversation surrounding the elections at large. I will barnstorm American living rooms. Mainstream media will be unable to ignore me, but more importantly they will be unable to overlook the needs of average Americans in the run-up to the 2012 election. My commonsense approach will have heads exploding inside the beltway and eyes lighting up in households across the country. With the majority of Americans sharing our values and with my passion for fairness and
uncompromising honesty, the people will have a crystal clear choice between Washington politics as usual and the Green alternative. We have had it and we are ready for true change. Behold the Greening of America.
3. Please list five issue areas that you feel are most important and what would you do about them. (Who are you?)
- OBLITERATION OF THE “TWO PARTY” SYSTEM – I will achieve this by becoming the first Green Party President of these United States as a result of our victory in the 2012 general election. I also believe it’s essential to do away with the Electoral College.
- CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE – I will introduce a Constitutional Amendment that will end corporate personhood and remove the unfair advantage that corporations have in influencing the decisions made in Washington. If it doesn’t think, breathe and bleed, it’s not human. It’s not even a dog. I will then take this one crucial step further and embrace current efforts to remove allmoney from our electoral process.
- ECONOMIC JUSTICE – As President of the United States, I will reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 as well as bringing back the financial transaction tax that, for pennies on the dollar, will be a windfall for social programs in danger of being cut. I will remove the immoral cap on FICA tax for the rich. I will rewrite labor laws so that U.S. companies are bound by them even when they try to skirt them by shipping jobs overseas. This will effectively roadblock mega-corporations from outsourcing production to countries with immoral, inadequate and nonexistent labor laws. Our jobs will stay here in the United States of America where they belong. I will close the loopholes that allow some of our nation’s most profitable corporations to get away with not paying any taxes at all.
- HEALTH CARE NOT WARFARE – Not only will I bring home all U.S. troops from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Mexico and the Horn of Africa, but I will also permanently shut down the 1,000-plus foreign U.S. military bases around the world. This would save more than enough money to implement a single- payer health care system in the United States. Guantanamo Bay will remain open and that is where I will send anyone who opposes this plan. Just kidding on that last part.
5. LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA – I’m sick and tired of this “medical marijuana” sham. All marijuana is medicinal and we have to stop pretending that there is some sort of moral superiority to calling some of it “medical.” I will legalize all marijuana and all drugs in general. Drug education will be offered and treatment plans will be put in place for abusers. Sweeping the problem under the rug by turning non-violent abusers into criminals only exacerbates the problem by pretending that real solutions don’t exist. Behold the Greening of America!
4. What parts of the GPUS platform do you feel most closely aligned with? What parts do you disagree with, if any? Are there parts you would improve upon and how? (Who are we?)
The Green Party platform is a straightforward, commonsense approach to the central issues facing America today and this is why I look forward to knocking on doors, lighting up Twitter and taking to the airwaves to promote our values and message. As a mother and grandmother, and as someone who has spent a career in a male- dominated and chauvinistic industry, GPUS’s views on feminism strongly appeal to me. As someone who lives and works on a farm and cares deeply about our environment, I’m very passionate about issues related to sustainability and how we treat our planet. As president, I would insure environmental protections for the Earth and the biosphere by implementing a Green New Deal for America.
Which is not to say we are in total agreement, nor that we should be; any political party must allow for, and I embrace, differences, conversation and inclusiveness. One point of contention, for example, that I have with the Green Party platform pertains to criminal justice. While I wholeheartedly agree that most prison sentences should be replaced with treatment and rehabilitation and that prison time should be reserved for violent criminals, I would add that in some cases prison sentences should actually be expanded – for instance, the violent crimes of those on Wall Street who have defrauded the American people of trillions of dollars. They should be prosecuted and placed in prison. For the most part I agree with the Party’s platform that people should be treated with compassion, but for criminals as terrible as these, I believe only the harshest punishment will do.
5. What in your background qualifies you to be a credible presidential candidate? What assets would you bring to your campaign in addition to those already existing within the Green Party? (What do you have to offer?)
From the very beginning of my career as a stand-up comic in the purple state of Colorado, I have been using comedy as a vessel in which to wrap my advocacy with a spoonful of sugar. I have been fighting for working class families and women for decades. My frank talk is second to none and I have earned America’s respect with my brutal honesty. I am able to express myself in a way that is intelligent and articulate but doesn’t put my audience to sleep or make them slit their wrists. My experience as a public figure and my ability to handle media scrutiny and criticism is great preparation for a national campaign and the national political spotlight. I’m no stranger to political organizing and campaigning, either. I’ve participated in voter registration drives, voter outreach, canvassing, including work with a wonderful organization that used to go by the name of ACORN. From neighborhoods in Miami Dade County to college campuses from Ohio to my home state of Utah, I’ve campaigned, not as a politician or a spokesperson, but as a mother, grandmother and concerned citizen who cares deeply about this country.
6. Presidential campaigns are legally independent entities from the political party whose nomination they received. Yet most successful political campaigns meld candidate and party synergistically. If you were the GPUS nominee, how would you envision that working relationship? (How can we work together?)
I have an existing network of grassroots supporters and the Green Party has an existing infrastructure of state and local parties. Synergizing these two powerful groups will be the key to my candidacy. Many of my existing supporters are newcomers to the political process. They live in the wide pockets of America traditionally overlooked by the two party corporate system and are difficult to reach by insurgent third parties. My campaign will focus its efforts on empowering these good Americans. I will work closely with the Green Party to engage them and welcome them to the existing army of Green Party supporters. The success of my campaign will be determined by our ability to activate the tens of millions of voters who’ve given up on the traditional process as well as the tens of
millions who still take part even though they feel like they have no choice. I am welcomed into the living rooms of tens of millions of blue-collar Americans, many of whom appreciate the work I did in honestly portraying their plight on network television. As they have welcomed me into their homes, I will welcome them into the Green Party.
7. Do believe that an independent party like the Greens can succeed in the US? How would you define such success? How can it happen? (Will we succeed?)
I would not be running for President if I did not believe I could win. I would not be answering this question if I did not believe the Greens could succeed in the U.S. The “two party” system is clearly broken. The 1% has two political parties – Democratic and Republican – but the 99% only has one: The Green Party. We are in a unique position this election to bring millions of new voters into the fold. More and more Americans see that every day. On both the right and the left, and also in the center, Americans are waking up and realizing that something must change. Whether it is the Tea Party or the 99%, people are taking matters into their own hands and changing the debate. The Green Party is already well-positioned as an existing party and with the right candidate, the underlying sanity of its platform can not only reach new ears, it can change both the course of conversation in America and the course of this country itself. With the rising tide of discontent expressed and embodied by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the time has never been better to convert this energy into success in the voting booths, thus breaking the stranglehold the “two parties” have on American politics.
8. There is some interest within the Green Party of having the party’s nominee run together with a Green Cabinet, that would feature prospective cabinet members and federal agency heads that would serve in your government, should you be elected president. Such an approach could demonstrate what a Green government might be like and would do so during the election, promoting transparency. It could expand the number of people campaigning, with Cabinet members on the road and in the press in addition to the nominees. What do you think of this approach? Who might hold positions in a Green Cabinet? How would you see your candidacy interacting with those individuals during the campaign? (How might we
connect the dots?)
What better way to dovetail my campaign with the existing Green Party infrastructure than to work with those most familiar with it? I will consult with the Green Party in effort to build a Green Cabinet I can regularly consult with and refine my platform based on their feedback. Running for president is a collaborative effort. Building a Green Cabinet would help amplify our message and show the American people what a Green administration would look like.
9. Can we publish your reply on the GPUS website in a public section reserved for such responses?
Yes, please.
Please send your reply to the PCSC co-chairs AJ Segneri (aj.segneri@gmail.com) and Tom Yager at (vagreen@earthlink.net)