Hallelujah
The Saturday after Trump’s win in 2016 was my first day back from outdoor school. Every sixth grader in Oregon spends a week in the woods without technology. The election had been occupying my mind for months and I was devastated I wouldn’t get to watch it. I came up with a plan to sneak my iPod touch into the camp but I hadn’t considered wifi. It was a long week. Now, home, and happy to be back in front of my television, my parents, brother, and I came together to watch Saturday Night Live. I’ll remember the image of Kate McKinnon dressed as Hillary Clinton sitting at a piano for the rest of my life. But, even more memorable was the somberness and fear I could feel radiating all the way from New York.
January 6th, 2024. Trump is weeks away from his second term as President, or 3rd as he still hasn’t conceded. It is also four years since he incited a violent insurrection. I’m sitting in front of the tv watching the videos of his supporters (cult members) storming the Capitol and I see an image of a blue Trump 2020 flag hanging on the white walls of the Capitol as smoke plumes out. That memory of Kate McKinnon singing Hallelujah came to mind. Specifically this verse…
Now baby I’ve been here before
I know this room, I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
We’ve been here before, we survived four years of Trump. We saw what happens when his grasp on power is threatened. Violence. We saw his flag hanging on the walls of our Capitol building. Trump says January 6th was a day of love. The rioters stormed in waving his flag proclaiming their love for Donald Trump.
But Love is not a victory march, and this isn’t love - it’s obsession.
Don’t love a candidate, love your country and what is love without respect? Respecting the peaceful transfer of power. Respect for your fellow Americans, your neighbors that voted for the other candidate. That love, that basic respect, has been ripped from this country by Donald Trump. All we’re left with is a cold and broken Hallelujah.