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.”
Lucille Webb • Apr 18, 2014 at 12:03 am
I don’t want to attack any particular party, but it sounds like another way to try to add another third party to the elections, like Ron Paul has run on the Republican ticket being (as we all know is Libertarian) And Ralph Nader ran on the Democratic ticket even though we know he is Green.. It all sounds like BS to me. Has anyone read the libertarian platform? OMG, you would think a 10th grader wrote the preamble. Be very careful because you no how difficult it is sometimes to reason with a 10th grader. As I understand it Libertarians believe that institutions including prisons should be privately owned. People should be able to do whatever drugs they want and should be allowed firearms. It just “ain’t Nobody’s business If You Do” Let all the prisoners out of jail and give them a gun. That makes perfect sense if you are a 10th grader. In general the Libertarians I have met at conventions etc have a lot of money and don’t have many kids. And the most important thing to them is being sure they have their money after they are dead. They want the right to shoot someone who crosses their property line no questions asked. Selfishness and greed is the driver to that party. Don’t get me wrong, I know lots of libertarians who are very fair and generous with both time and money, but generally they haven’t read the platform and are loured in by some self serving fast talker.
extremely self centered folks. Every man for himself, mine mine mine. How do you see that working in our world today.? I’m sorry, I did attack. This Blue Republican BS is just another way the libertarians are trying to get their foot in the door. Another thing, their belief that all drugs should be legal and nobody has the right to infringe or those rights. Why? during one of their conventions, in the “Hospitality room” at a huge hotel, no police around, Just Libertarians everywhere. When a couple of people who use medical Marijuana as meds needed relief and felt they would be safe taking a couple of hits, They were told to leave and were shunned. Does this make any sense. L have never seen such hippocracy.
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James Nye • Nov 21, 2011 at 9:46 am
Eric, do you know anything about libertarianism? You do know that being a “blue republican” means being a liberal who is voting for Ron Paul.
Pro-Islamist – So by that, you mean someone who wants to get out of iraq and afghanistan and stop fighting unsustainable wars which will bankrupt this country. I’m with Ron Paul here.
Weak on defense – Again, someone who prefers to bring the troops home and defend the country here. Do you believe in the whole “if we leave, they’ll follow us home” bullshit?
Surrender to Islamo-fascism – See above.
Supporting people who want to… – Now you’re just making things up. Do you know anything about Ron Paul’s views?
Outlaw booze and gambling – Ron Paul would do neither. it’s more likely that Obama or Romney would.
Ban free speech – As you can see from the OWS movement, Obama is allowing police officers to do just that and Romney would be no different. Ron Paul would not condone any sort of denial of constitutional rights.
Jail marijuana smokers – Again, this is something Romney would do and Obama already does. Ron Paul wants desperately to decriminalize marijuana and end the drug war.
Eric Dondero • Nov 4, 2011 at 8:53 am
So, “Blue Republicans,” are essentially Pro-Islamist? Weak on defense, surrender to Islamo-Fascism?
Geez, help me out here. I fail to see how supporting people who want to force our wives/girlfriends to wear ugly black burqas from head to toe, who want to outlaw booze and gambling, ban free speech and jail marijuana smokers is consistent with libertarianism.