The Northern Michigan University College Libertarians will be bringing speaker and Huffington Post contributor Robin Koerner to campus to speak about the “Blue Republican” movement, the upcoming election and the current crisis in American politics.

The event, titled “The Blue Republican Movement and the End of Left Vs. Right,” will take place at 7 p.m. Nov. 10 in Jamrich 103.

The Blue Republican movement, an idea that Koerner himself created, is aimed at ending the “left vs. right” paradigm in modern politics, but is also concerned with encouraging Democrats to vote for Republican candidate Ron Paul in the 2012 elections.

“We thought it would be really good for campus,” College Libertarian President Kayla Lahti said. “The election is coming up and we wanted to get students thinking and talking about it.”

The College Libertarians as well as the NMU Youth for Ron Paul organization are working together to bring Koerner to campus; however, the initial idea for him to speak at NMU came from College Libertarian member Tracy Pickering.

Pickering, who knows Koerner personally, brought up the idea to bring him to campus a couple months ago.

“She knew him and she knew he was a good speaker,” Lahti said. “She told us about the idea and spread the word to us. After learning about Blue Republicanism, we felt he would be a great speaker for us to bring to campus.”

Koerner’s creation of the Blue Republican movement can be attributed to a couple key ideas.

“America’s present crisis suffers not from just the mistakes of the left or the mistakes of the right, but from what left and right have done to this country together,” Koerner said. “The USA suffers from a political duopoly in which both sides appear to disagree.

“While actually agreeing about most of what really matters, including militarism, corporate cronyism and the taking away of Americans’ basic, Constitutional rights.”

The College Libertarians are embracing the movement as a step towards a Ron Paul Presidency in 2012, but also as a way to face the critical point that we’ve reached as a country.

“The idea of getting away from the left vs. right could be a huge stride in the political spectrum,” College Libertarian Treasurer Bridget McDonald said. “It’s a cool idea of putting (Blue Republicanism) out there in general. I think it is good to get people thinking about that.”

McDonald also noted that Koerner’s speech on campus will be particularly timely because of the ‘Occupy’ movement that has taken place in Marquette –– and all over the country –– during the past few weeks.

“The Occupy protests are going on as well –– people just want something different,” McDonald said.

The format of the speech was recently altered to be interview-style as opposed to just a talk.

College Libertarians member Matthew Holliday will be in charge of asking Koerner questions pertaining to his affiliation with Blue Republicanism, as well as American politics in general.

“This way, we can make sure that he speaks on topics students are most interested in,” Lahti said. “We want to ask him some tough questions to challenge his ideas –– we believe that’s important.”