Some minority groups can’t catch a break.

Opposition to one such group was overpowering Tuesday, when more than 500 supporters of the Chabot Gun Club packed an East Bay Regional Park District meeting in an effort to keep it from closing. But the gun lovers never had a chance.

It ain’t easy being conservative in the Bay Area, a part of the country known for tolerance, inclusion and diversity — except when diversity includes right wingers.

“Every angry middle-aged white guy in Alameda County is here,” quipped one East Bay Regional Park District official, who described the park district as “Occupy Oakland versus ‘Duck Dynasty.’”

Packing a public meeting with supporters is a strategy that has been used successfully by left-leaning Bay Area activists for decades, and it still works. But for conservative supporters — outnumbered and outgunned in Bay Area politics — not so much.

Of course, not every gun club supporter who showed up Tuesday was necessarily a registered Republican, a Trump supporter or a card-carrying conservative. But let’s face it: Guns are a core issue among conservatives, and when pitted against environmental concerns, the love of guns typically wins out.

After five hours of impassioned pleas from gun owners and law enforcement agencies, which were met with calls for responsible environmental protections, the East Bay Regional Park District Board voted unanimously to close the gun range for good. The club was given one year to manage its affairs and clear out.

Keeping a low profile

In Alameda County, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 4 to 1, conservatives tend to tread lightly, said Sue Caro, a former chair of the Alameda County Republican Party.

“I discovered very quickly that if you’re a Republican, the deeper into Oakland and Berkeley you go, the more you encounter indifference and people who just ignore you,” Caro said. Republicans like Caro, who has lived in Oakland for 30 years, tend to maintain a low profile, even sometimes concealing — or denying — their true party affiliation, she added.

As a result, most Republicans aren’t often regarded as legitimate candidates, Caro said and complained that in Berkeley and Oakland, the League of Women Voters doesn’t invite Republican candidates to join in candidate forums they sponsor.

“And when we ask, they show surprise that a Republican is running.” she said. “It’s like we don’t matter. That’s how they treat us.”

Louise Rothman-Riemer, president of the League of Women Voters Oakland, called Caro’s assertion false and said that all candidates who qualify for the ballot are invited to participate in such forums.

Caro has filed as a candidate in the November congressional race to run against incumbent Barbara Lee, a Democratic icon, but views her candidacy as little more than a token effort.

“No one is going to pay attention to me, and when nobody pays attention you don’t get press opportunities — and you don’t get to give your message to large groups when there is no money coming in,” Caro said. “There is no cavalry coming to help me.”

Caro said even as the local Republic Party is grooming a new generation of candidates who represent the area’s ethnic diversity, they get no media attention.

Perhaps that’s why local Republicans are suspicious of media inquiries, often regarding them as potential ambushes. No one from the Chabot Gun Club returned my calls to talk about the meeting.

Making gains

If there is a silent minority in the Bay Area, I’m pretty sure it’s Republicans.

Despite their second-class status, inroads are being made, say some conservatives, who point to the rise of Catharine Baker of San Ramon, who won the 16th Assembly District seat in 2014. Caro pointed to the five-member Pleasanton City Council: all Republican. And to nearby Dublin, where three of five council members are GOP members. The mayors of both cities are Republicans as well, she said.

In Bay Area politics, there is no pendulum swing in voter trends and little tolerance for opposing viewpoints. Instead, Bay Area residents choose from moderate to extreme degrees of liberal politics — and in a region of the country on the leading edge of diverse communities and inclusion, they effectively silence opposing views. That doesn’t sound like the tolerance we espouse.

Chip Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns run Tuesday and Friday. Email: chjohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @chjohnson