As a former academic, my advice is that this may hurt in the short term, but staying true to your principles is important in a world where situational ethics rule. I am a lifelong libertarian and made no attempt to hide it. Leftist academics are not interested in diversity of thought, they are not interested in debate. They merely want to rule and have an echo chamber. I found that most of them weren't even very intelligent people--just kind of mediocre, and that most were intimidated by anyone with real gumption, diverse skills, and the bravery to speak against the party line.

The world needs you. No matter what your politics are, if you truly are advancing science and doing all the things you wrote about, you will be fine. You just need to take this lesson to heart and understand that the machine is like Skynet in that it protects itself.

I further recommend you leave NY State, especially upstate. It's had it. Barring some massive turnaround, there is no future for anyone in Upstate NY.