US politics has a disease, a cancer eating at the system. One of its symptoms is doubt, which in its worst forms, breeds mistrust. The source of infection is difficult to pinpoint but the destructiveness is obvious. The latest attempt to check the credibility of the last election has become an open sore, a wound to our political process. The contagion is fed by a diet of lies and misunderstandings, the siren voices of populist politics, many with vested interests. What is the antidote? What heals the disease? A remedy might be to remind ourselves what this country represents. Outward signs of patriotism such as wrapping oneself in the flag or parades of military hardware are are just that "outward signs." More important are the ideas holding the country together, equality before the law, equal opportunity, fairness. When people fall, Americans go to pick them up. We believe that virtue is its own reward and that self-interest alone is corrosive. We refuse to be ruled by dictators. We trust our vote to a secret ballot. For all its horrors, the pandemic has exposed the moral bankruptcy and sickness of those who use lies to wield power. Truth is the only medicine which can heal us.