It shouldn't be too surprising that I have a totally different take on all this.

As far as Cubans are concerened, in spite of their virulently anti-Castro and anti-Communist views, they are politically pretty liberal in almost all other respects. The idea of a nation this rich that doesn't offer them government medical, retirement and educational benefits is incomprehensible, and in social issues they are pretty liberal, in spite of the strong Catholic influence and the usual Latin machismo nonsense. It is expected that the role of government in business is the regulation of commerce in order to protect the public.

As for the liberal slant of of the universities, the exaggerated emphasis on business and marketing education in American schools should balance left wing bias in other fields. You will recall, I went to college in the 60s, when the Vietnam war was raging, and what I saw was a spontaneous shift in politics without any assist from the professors or administration or media. Even the business majors tended to be anti-war. What I did notice was a marked political gap between science and engineering majors, even though their classes and professors overlapped enormously. I put it down to obscure behavioral and psychological factors rather than the staff or the curriculum. I have little knowledge of the university system today, but surely there are large numbers of rightist colleges, just as there now is a rightist media and press, much more, I might add, than in my day.

As for the general bias of the press, I see the press as a business, and like any other, they want to please their customers. My major observation is not political at all, it is their tendency to publish fluff stories and feel-good crap, as well as raw sensationalism. The press isn't trying to drive people left, it's just trying to get them watch (especially the advertising).

As for the general tone of the country, a lot of what you perceive as a shift to the left is actually a return to the middle ground (no, I don't expect you to accept that). I remember the slant of the press when I was in high school and even into the late sixties. It was way far right, too much so, even for someone politically neutral as I was in those days, or my family who considered themselves well right of center. Remember, there was a time when all the war movies were like "The Green Berets".

I'm not saying that there isn't some truth in what you're saying, and I don't doubt you can point out many examnples to support your view, but you should keep in mind that the trends that seem so obvious to you aren't quite as obvious to others, and perhaps getting to the bottom of that contradiction is the best way to understand what is happening politically to this country.