As an individual deeply connected to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, I’ve found it increasingly challenging to witness the collective amnesia that seems to have settled over America regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine. The initial shock of the 2022 invasion has faded, replaced by the ebb and flow of other news stories.

A quick fact check calls the climate merits of curtailing LNG exports into question. Most LNG exports go to Europe, where they have a 41% lifecycle emissions advantage over Russian gas imports. The majority of remaining exports go to Asia, where it heavily displaces coal. Exporting LNG is often a climate winner, not to mention the economic and security benefits for ourselves and our allies. 

Events of the past week have brought clarity in many areas. Perhaps the one that hits closest to home for many Americans is the moral rot of academia. Leading academics, scholars, professors, students, and administrators in the United States have had a shockingly hard time condemning mass murder and rape at a music concert in the desert, the slaughter of babies, and the kidnapping of more than 100 civilians of all ages.

Imagine if Congress had opened an inquiry then into the question of Hunter Biden’s huge salary for sitting on the board of Burisma Energy, the company controlled by oligarch Zlochevsky. Hunter Biden might be in prison now, and his father would have retired to Delaware to live out his final years in shame. Instead, Democrats in Congress put Trump on trial for daring to notice that which must not be named – the influence-peddling scheme run by Joe Biden and his kin.

This essay and the series it inaugurates, The 1735 Project, is not about the failings of the two dominant political parties. Rather, it will focus on the media’s role in the degradation of U.S. politics and America’s national discourse. This endeavor, which will consist of numerous reported essays, is about the abdication of a responsibility that the press willingly — often courageously — shouldered throughout the 20th century.

Obviously, the U.S. needs to be more careful in how it distributes aid. Pausing distribution makes sense for now, but starving Ethiopians don’t have all year. The U.S. needs to enact reforms — and quickly. 

A favorite talking point from the Biden White House is that guns are the leading cause of death of children. The problem is that it is false.

"We don't want to wait till the fourth quarter to start scoring touchdowns when you have four quarters to put points on the board," Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said last month in promoting the new strategy. “We have to change the culture among Republican voters.”   

Biden’s energy policies are needlessly weakening the U.S. and strengthening China. Since the 1970s, with the help of its innovative energy industry, America has won independence from OPEC. It makes no sense to implement policies that weaken our economy while once again putting our access to energy at the mercy of a hostile and even more dangerous adversary.

America, like any country, certainly faces many challenges, such as inflation and rising crime rates. But if we remain true to the ideals and principles that made us the country we are today, I have no doubt in my mind that we can overcome them. The United States is the greatest country in the world due to the underlying principles of freedom and equality that have led to its success.

Ours is a country whose citizens still believe, overwhelmingly, in the ideals of the Declaration of Independence, the document that gave birth to the Fourth of July celebration. Our is still a country that, despite efforts to divide us, still strives to achieve its national motto, “Out of many, one.”

It is not the governor or the courts or even the people of the state which set election rules, according to the Constitution, but the legislatures. Mind you, the state legislatures are not entirely unchecked in their decision making, but it is the Congress of the United States that provides the checks and balances, not the courts.

American civics education is in a state of disarray. Recent news of abysmal test scores proves that our students are falling behind. A civics education deficit is emerging. If we allow the decline to continue unabated, America is in danger of forgetting the Declaration’s truth that people matter. If our children are never taught the basic principles of our Constitution, then they will never participate fully in a government of citizens.

From Boston’s Big Dig to California’s high-speed rail to New York’s 12 years-overdue and 300-percent over-budget East Side Access rail project, big boondoggles routinely demonstrate the validity of the rule. Offshore wind projects are not immune to the Iron Law, regularly experiencing vast cost overruns before a single watt is generated.  

The foremost market signal is that the U.S. is prosperous. Extraordinarily so. And enormous prosperity will always exist as a magnet for those seeking a better life.