Danny Mackey has been called a racist, a sexist and a homophobe. In truth, he is none of them — he is simply a Republican.
This state is the fourth-most Democratic in the nation, according to a 2012 Gallup poll. In the past 40 years, the state elected just one Republican governor. Nationwide, 48 percent of college-aged voters identified as Democrats, while only 28 percent labeled themselves Republicans, a 2012 survey by The Panetta Institute For Public Policy reported.
In this deep blue environment, many conservative students at this university said they feel a negative bias from their peers, their professors and the administration.
“The Republican Party has a message that makes sense, but a lot of people our age don’t see that,” said Mackey, a sophomore civil engineering major. “I wish my liberal classmates would forget the word ‘Republican’ for five minutes and listen to what we have to say.”
The Republican Party’s main tenet is an economic message, Mackey said.
“A true Republican is just someone who is in favor of small government and personal freedom. A lot of people aren’t OK with the pro-life movement or the traditional marriage movement, but that’s not the point,” said Mackey, who supports gay marriage. “Our message is that we need to take the country on a financial track that will allow us to still exist in 100 years.”
But several students associated the Republican Party with negative traits.
For instance, when sophomore Ellyssa Sherman, a chemistry and psychology major, hears the word Republican, she thinks “closed-minded.”
Sophomore education major Annie Beachley thinks “not willing to support the less fortunate.”
And freshman English major Asher Thomas thinks “government shutdown.”
Mackey said one of the reasons students at this university see the Republican Party in a negative light is because he believes professors use their lecterns as pulpits.
Thomas, who identifies as independent, said he dropped his sociology class after the first day because he could sense his professor’s political bias.
“The class didn’t seem like it was about sociology,” Thomas said. “It was more about promoting a liberal agenda.”
A majority — 62.7 percent —
of teachers at American universities and colleges identified as liberal or far left, according to a 2010-11 survey from the University of California, Los Angeles Higher Education Research Institute. Only 11.9 percent identified as conservative or far right.
“Discounting the word Republican is learned; it’s not something that students come to campus with on their own,” Mackey said. “It’s something that’s taught in the classrooms at the University of Maryland, and it’s a shame.”
A few weeks ago, Mackey said he was sitting in his physics class when the teaching assistant called the Republican Party “the party of stupid.” Mackey said his teacher used former Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-Mo.) much-publicized comment, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down,” as proof that Republicans were wrong about global warming, too.
“If you want to talk about what the Republican leadership said about global warming, and if they were wrong about that, go ahead and call them stupid. But you can’t use Todd Akin’s comments to do that,” he said. “There are 300 million people in this county. About 150 are Republicans. One of them is going to say something stupid, and that happens to the Democrats, too. If students don’t take the time to look into it themselves, they’re going to start identifying the Republican Party as ‘the party of stupid.’”
Mackey, who consumes news from sources ranging from Fox News to MSNBC, said the problem stems from students’ general apathy toward politics and their unwillingness to research the issues themselves.
“When you’re 18, you have the biggest stake in the game, but not the biggest interest in the game,” he said. “You find that students who don’t know the issues well, who don’t invest time in learning the issues, are the ones who are really biased against the Republican Party. Politically informed liberal students on campus will meet a Republican and completely respect their view and have a discussion with them.”
Sophomore biology major Breyer Hillegas was tabling with the College Republicans at the First Look Fair when he was peppered with insults from students walking by.
Racist. Sexist. Homophobe.
He’s been accused of hating women — but browse the College Republicans Facebook page, and women are present in almost every photo.
Kaylin Bugos, a senior government and politics and journalism major, is one such female conservative.
“The party has to do some intense rebranding — the message is not bad, but the messaging is,” she said. “People that say that it’s wrong to be a Republican woman don’t understand what it means to be Republican. Republicans are not anti-women, despite the way they are often portrayed.”
Hillegas said that while the university encourages diversity of race and religion, there seems to be an exception when it comes to conservative thought. During the presidential election last year, he said students told him they pretended to be happy about President Obama winning just to go along with the crowd.
“Students will bash Republicans just because they think differently. Well, Jewish people and Hindu people think differently, too, but you don’t bash them,” Hillegas said.
Several Republican students also said the administration appeared to advocate liberal causes.
In 2012, for instance, university President Wallace Loh sent an email to the student body encouraging people to read his Washington Post column supporting the controversial DREAM Act. That was a “gross misuse” of his position “to try and influence policy,” Mackey said.
“Whether you look up to him or not, he is the president of this university and he has clout,” Mackey said. “When he says something like that, you’re going to take it to heart. I shouldn’t be getting a political message from the president of my university.”
Conservatives on the campus disagreed with the stigma that all Republicans are old, white and male. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, one of only two black senators currently serving, is a 48-year-old Republican.
“The thing about old white guys is eventually they’re going to retire, and when they do, there’s going to be a slew of young people coming in, and the stigma will shake itself,” Mackey said.
Senior Tony Smith, an economics and government and politics major, said he hoped the Republican Party could be revamped in a way that concentrates on the principles of economics instead of whether someone is pro-life or pro-choice.
“If we allowed a big tent on the social issues and mainly focused on getting our message out about economic issues, I think that would draw in a lot more young people and help get rid of a lot of stereotypes,” Smith said.
