"Of course I have an explanation, and I've given it any number of times, and it's gone where most of my explanations go, wafting gently out into the digital ether unremarked, because if someone is utterly convinced that my initial premise is bullshit, everything else I say to support it is just white noise.

I'm not sure there's a point to it, but here it is again:

Basically, the Left owns the educational system in America, lock, stock and barrel. Particularly the higher educational system. There are exceptions in private schools, including those that have gone to the other extreme, but for the most part this is true."

Yeah. But why?
I say it has NOTHING to do with various notions of the Left- Communism, Socialisms, Marxism, redistributing wealth, or anything else. If it were these things, it would be easy enough "to fix". Because basically the above list deals with reasoning/thought and therefore one could easily point out what is rationally wrong with these ideologies, and then you would be "done".

I think there are a number of reasons why, but to narrow it to one thing, I would say Americans have changed. Now, as a general rule Americans and lefties specifically would be very pleased if in fact the nature of American has changed- so that by itself is driving force. Said differently, the basic character of Americans is they want to improve [which of course requires changing], whereas lefties and to some degree Americans in general believe that ANY change equal a good change [or an improvement].

So, how have Americans changed?
In many ways, of course, but one change which I think is important regarding the topic, is that American have become more civilized- meaning: less of the cowboy, less of the pioneers, less individualistic, etc. America is becoming more urban- and less rural. In other words it has nothing to do with 19th, 20th, or 21 Century ideas, it's simple demography.

And this is a reason I think opening the space frontier is important [to America and/or the world].