[media-credit name=’BEN CLASSON/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Despite the bitterly cold weather, the University of Wisconsin College Republicans met Tuesday night to hear about two national revolutionaries — Ronald Regan and Che Guevara.

The political organization invited Floyd Brown from the Young America's Foundation, to present "Who's the Bigger Revolutionary: Reagan or Guevara?"

Guevara was a controversial political figure in who led Cuban and international guerrillas.

"We wanted to do something different rather then get a politician to come in. YAF pitched the idea to me a couple of months ago," said Erica Christenson, chair of the College Republicans. "We wanted a lecture — I thought it was a unique idea."

In his speech, Brown presented both Reagan and Guevara as revolutionary icons in society. After establishing grounds for classifying as a revolutionary, Brown contrasted in depth the influential lives of both leaders.

Guevara was portrayed through facts and quotes — sometimes taken directly from his diaries — as a Marxist, a blood-thirsty murderer, a womanizer and a man who failed politically, economically and militarily.

Reagan, on the other hand, was shown as a man with a "different philosophy," according to Brown.

"Where Che's philosophy was, let's kill as many of them as we can, Ronald Reagan's philosophy was, 'Let's have strength, peace through strength, and once we are strong, let's extend the hand of friendship,'" Brown said.

Brown highlighted Reagan's economic policy, which added 40 million new jobs and increased the GDP by more than 70 percent.

According to Brown, Guevara was "the perfect icon for Marxism as … a failed ideology" and he contrasted with Reagan as "a perfect icon for modern conservatism."

Brown also spoke about the Guevara T-shirt craze among young people on campus.

"He's an icon to the left — look all over the campus; you will find people wearing shirts with him on it," Brown said. "You don't see them wearing shirts with Lennon, you don't see them wearing shirts with Bill Clinton — they are identifying with Che."

UW sophomore Andrew Wright said the meeting provided an opportunity to hear a unique perspective.

"I like to come to these meetings when I'm not working, and I have a good time," Wright said. "It's fun, and I'm interested in the different speakers they have."

The College Republicans also discussed the upcoming Associated Students of Madison student elections as well as the spring elections from the College Republicans.

Christenson said they will host mayoral candidate Ray Allen, who they recently endorsed, to speak at their next meeting in two weeks. The College Democrats endorsed Dave Cieslewicz last week.

"We don't have a specific plan for elections; we want to, however, get people into the habit of voting," Christenson said, "and [to] take advantage of the absentee ballots so that we can have a stronger voice on campus."

The general election is set for Apr. 3, which coincides with UW's spring break. The primary, which will narrow the field from four candidates to two, will be Feb. 20.