What does a Class E/D player need to know to play the Queen's Gambit?

That's the Usual GM treatment of the Dutch, but there are some whacko opening gambits that are irritating.

I have 3 notebooks by hand on references on the Queen's Gambit alone. I have more single papers here and their on variations of it that is rarely seen online and i mean rarely seen. I pull them out once in a blue moon against a player that wants to play in the book the whole game or just because i can. Have to save some when i go to tournament.

That is the long way and gives black time to set up the middle game and or End Game.

The bottom line you need to attack black's castled position. This has to be down with practice at your level. Not being funny as if you do not have the experience your in for a world of hurt.

Since you used to play e4....   I am sure you are famaliar with Bobby Fischer. Study his games how he attacked the black castled position. The best on one "Sac Sac and Mate" Once you understand that game the Dutch will never be a problem.

The only thing that works on all levels against the Queen's Gambit is when they do not play d5 at all or real late in the game where the pawn structures are mobile.

I was just looking at some Dutch stuff, and something I saw was that white can, if he wants, play an early Bg5 and Bxf6 and double black's pawns, trading off a bishop that wouldn't be doing much anyway. Just to have something if I go against the Dutch, is this a decent idea?

That is it!

You just did not not follow up. It then goes into attacking the castled king with all avaible forces which makes the Dutch worthless. But the attack can not really begin to start unless black o-o or your sure black will o-o and not o-o-o.  This can be done with a frontal attack or use or a combo of frontal and diagonal attacks.

For that reason if you studied Bobby Fischer King side attacks this is not that hard to achieve in a game. The list of ways to attack the Dutch vary due to black's pawn formation but the one you listed works for all of them.

Almost forgot have to watch out for openings that transpose into the Dutch which why the Queen's Gambit is so slow in development and when to castle. Reason why it takes so much time to get famaliar with it. The general idea of the Queen's Gambit is easy to learn but to apply it is another story.

Yes there is, but you have to forego the early c4.  Instead 1. d4, 2. Nf3 and 3. e3 are almost unstoppable by Black.  Now you can play c4, before or after Bd3 or Be2, and 0-0, but instead you might want to play c3.

Assuming your question is a serious one, "and that's a stretch" you seem to be searching for and opening that there will be no interaction by the black pieces to interfere with what you want to set up. That doesn't exist! The closest opening I could suggest you STUDY, is the Colle System. You'll get some of what you're looking for looking for in  your "dream setup" except you do appear to be ready to exploit your "dream setup".

Another idea to avoid studying a lot variations (although there will always be some), is using the repertoire suggested by GM Summerscale in his book A killer chess opening repertoire.  His idea is to play always 1.d4 and 2.Nf3, and the choose 3 different set-ups depending on what black answers. Options are the Colle-Zukertort if black plays d5 and e6, the Barry Attack if black plays the Grunfeld set-up with d5 and g6, and the 150-attack if black plays the Pirc set-up with d6 and g6. I recently started a group for players with this or comparable repertoires, so if you're interested you are most welcome:

http://www.chess.com/groups/home/summerscales-killer-opening-repertoire-group

But, mainly I agree with most posters here, if your rating is what it is, then you will get a lot more improvement by studying tactics and calculation - just play the opening with sensible moves. 

 dream setup -  you can get your dream setup it is called practice and experience. This exist in End Games/Mating Patterns. It also can be found sometimes in openings but without the above it is a blown opportunity to win.

If your always looking for a  dream setup  forget it. If your opponent has any kind of common sense they will evaluate the situation on the board and find a good response.

The opening is about developing and finding a weakness in your opponents camp you can take advantage of in a game. At the same time you not creating a weakness in your army they can exploit. If your not patient then the Queen's Gambit is not for you at all. Your coming from e4 to d4 where little things early will later give you good advantages later if you can hold on to it. Where e4 is attack, attack and attack with it coming from all different directions on the board.

Mere queen's gambit can not win a game for you

But it surely gains rooms for you and more tactical opportunities. Place rook on opened c file.Place knight on e5. Bishop d3 and dark square bishop on f4 and mate would follow.

lol

I wish it was as simple as a Rook on C-file if it was openened all the time. Same for Knight on e5 by means of Ne5. Many players on this site try to pin the King Knight even thought they know it is bad i idea they do it anyway.

If what you say is true then White wins all the time. GM's would resign when you play 1 d4 and 2 c4 as there would be no reason to continue following your logic.

I played a 30 minute game against a person using the Old Benoni last week and I won because I opponent made a lot of errors. But today I played my first 30 minute game with the actual Queen's Gambit.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 Bf5 3. Qb3 b6 4. cxd5 Be4 5. Nc3 Nf6 6. Nxe4 Nxe4 7. f3 Nf6 8. e4 a5 9. Bb5+ Nbd7 10. e5 Ng8 11. e6 fxe6 12. dxe6 Nf6 13. Bg5 c6 14. Bxc6 Rc8 15. Bxd7 Nxd7 16. exd7 Qxd7 17. Qxb6 e6 18. a3 Rc6 19. Qxa5 Qxd4 20. Qa8+ Kd7 21. Qd8#

My opponent made a ton of mistakes. I probably shouldn't have played 15. Bxd7; I think both 15. Qb5 and 15. exd7 are better because they keep the pressure. Otherwise I think I did quite well although I know the Baltic is definitely not main-line :)